Rational Ritual
Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge
Why do public ceremonies exist? Because coordinated action needs everyone to know that everyone else knows.
Chwe’s question is why public ceremonies exist at all, from royal processions to Super Bowl advertising, and his answer is common knowledge: for coordinated action, it is not enough that everyone knows something, everyone must know that everyone knows. Rituals manufacture exactly that. A short academic book that reframes ceremony, advertising and even seating arrangements as solutions to a coordination problem.
Recommended by 1 Person
Mark Zuckerberg
Book Club · March 2015
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