Getting Your Way
Strategic Dilemmas in the Real World
Getting other people to do what we want is a useful skill for anyone. Whether you’re seeking a job, negotiating a deal, or angling for that big promotion, you’re engaged in strategic thought and action. In such moments, you imagine what might be going on in another person’s head and how they’ll react to what you do or say. At the same time, you also try to pick the best way to realize your goals, both with and without the other person’s cooperation. Getting Your Way teaches us how to win that game by offering a fuller understanding of how strategy works in the real world.
As we all know, rules of strategy are regularly discovered and discussed in popular books for business executives, military leaders, and politicians. Those works with their trendy lists of pithy maxims and highly effective habits can help people avoid mistakes or even think anew about how to tackle their problems. But they are merely suggestive, as each situation we encounter in the real world is always more complex than anticipated, more challenging than we had hoped. James M. Jasper here shows us how to anticipate those problems before they actually occur—by recognizing the dilemmas all strategic players must negotiate, with each option accompanied by a long list of costs and risks. Considering everyday dilemmas in a broad range of familiar settings, from business and politics to love and war, Jasper explains how to envision your goals, how to make the first move, how to deal with threats, and how to employ strategies with greater confidence.
Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Rosa Parks, Hugo Chávez, and David Koresh all come into play in this smart and engaging book, one that helps us recognize and prepare for the many dilemmas inherent in any strategic action.
American Sociological Association: ASA-Theory Section Award
Won
co-winner with Logics of History by William Sewell
“What a bright and daring thinker! In Getting Your Way, James Jasper attacks the utilitarian view of strategy, which too often is imposed upon us by economists. Jasper leads us to the notion of strategic dilemmas which becomes one of the most efficient instruments of analysis. This is the most original and illuminating introduction to strategy that I have read.”
“Getting Your Way is a wondrous book—well-written, hard-driving, interesting, creative, and important. A gifted storyteller and a brilliant analyst, Jasper uses broad-ranging examples, drawing on personal experience, philosophy, and history to convey his message that much of social interaction is strategic. Throughout Jasper pushes his analysis in ways that challenge popular accounts of strategy—especially game theory—identifying their deficiencies and pointing the way forward. This is a fun book to read.”--Lee Clarke, author of Worst Cases
Preface
Introduction: The Politics of Social Life
Chapter 1 - Starting Points
Initiation Is Rare — Advantages — Disadvantages — Knowing the Terrain — Accidental Engagements
Chapter 2 - Threats
The Power of the Negative — Insult — Deprivation — Incapacity — Moral Shocks — Blame — Intentional Threats
Chapter 3 - Goals
The Diversity of Goals — Reputation — Sensuality and Connection — Impact — Knowledge and Curiosity — Objectives — Relations among Goals — Changing Goals — Acts and Consequences — Appendix: Terms of Desire
Chapter 4 - Capacities
Means of Action — Resources — Intelligence — Individual Competencies — Reputations — Confidence and Agency — Organizational Capacities — Being There — Tastes in Tactics
Chapter 5 - Players as Audiences
Multiple Players — Creating Players — Segregating Audiences — Diverse Audiences and Alliances
Chapter 6 - Arenas
Kinds of Arenas — Relations among Arenas — Switching Arenas — Rules and Capacities — Structures — False Arenas
Conclusion: Thinking Through Dilemmas
Appendix: Rules of Strategic Action
Notes
Index
Economics and Business: Business--Business Economics and Management Studies
Psychology: Social Psychology
Sociology: General Sociology
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