DENNIS
CHONG
Rational Lives: Norms and Values in Politics and Society. University of Chicago Press (2000).
Rational Lives is a study of value formation and change, group identification, and conflict over social norms and lifestyles. Most scholars who study value conflicts have resisted rational choice approaches to the subject on the grounds that social conflict between groups is best explained by expressive motives and other "nonrational" factors. In contrast to this view, Dennis Chong shows that a single model that combines economic and sociological mechanisms can explain how people make decisions across both cultural and economic realms. He argues that the investments we make in the norms and values of our communities reflect the influence of our psychological dispositions, as well as the social and material costs and benefits of the options we face.
Rational Lives analyzes a variety of historical and contemporary political conflicts over social norms and yields numerous insights into how people are mobilized around common identities and values to defend their way of life. Most significantly, the book offers a provocative explanation of how ingrained norms and values can change over time in spite of the myriad forces working to maintain the status quo.
Other Books By Chong:
Collective Action and the Civil Rights Movement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1991)