ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is about culture, using that term in a broad sense to encompass social relations as well as values and beliefs. It describes the stuff of social science: politics, policies, and preferences. The book focuses on transportation policy shows that conflict between rival cultures serves a valuable social function by forcing participants to question their own assumptions and explain themselves to others. It suggests that the growth of grid-group analysis depends as much on conceptual clarification as it does on empirical application. The book shows that grid-group analysis to be a promising methodology for integrating culture into social science; we invite others to try out the theory. It utilizes primary sources to measure not only Populist values but also the social dimensions of grid and group.
