The Management Ethos

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-86
Author(s):  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Gain Control ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Popular Book ◽  
Methods And Techniques ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Democratic Life

The pseudoscientific notion that humans are machines or computing robots has led to the spread of a manipulative way of being in both personal life and politics. This manipulative ethic is a “management ethos.” On the personal level, modern people increasingly try to gain control of their lives using a panoply of supposedly scientifically validated self-help methods and techniques. This chapter examines the influence of scientism on practices such as dating and efforts to enhance personal charisma. Many of these methods unwittingly turn courtship into a form of mass consumer shopping, replacing alternative ways of perceiving one’s deepest attachments. In political life, there has been a tremendous spread of technocratic forms of authority. Technocracy is a form of rule that replaces democratic rule by ordinary people with government by experts. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s popular book Nudge is criticized as an example of technocracy and the management ethos usurping democratic life.

Wittgenstein’s philosophy and action research

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Shotter
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
The Social ◽  
Professional Research ◽  
The Many

Three themes seem to be common to both Greenwood’s and Gustavsen’s accounts: One is the social isolation of professional [research] elites from the concerns of ordinary people, which connects with another: the privileging of theory over practice. Both of these are connected, however, with a third: the great, unresolved struggle of ordinary people to gain control over their own lives, to escape from schemes imposed on them by powerful elites, and to build a genuinely participatory culture. An understanding of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy, and the recognition of its striking differences from any previous philosophical works, can make some important contributions to all these issues. Wittgenstein’s aim is not, by the use of reason and argument, to establish any foundational principles to do with the nature of knowledge, perception, the structure of our world, scientific method, etc. Instead, he is concerned to inquire into the actual ways available to us of possibly making sense in the many different practical activities we share in our everyday lives together: “We are not seeking to discover anything entirely new, only what is already in plain view.”

The Rhodesian Front and the African National Council

1980 ◽  
Vol 10 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Tony Kirk
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
National Council ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Bad Faith ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Flexible Response ◽  
The Government

In most countries ordinary people do not appreciate the sheer guile of their political leaders. Rhodesia is no exception. The dealings between the government and the African National Council confirm it. The government interrupted its dialogue with the ANC by detaining thirty-three senior ANC officials without trial, effectively destroying the cohesion of the only black political organization in the country. To the white voter, who sees no further than the surface of events, the detentions represented a simple exercise of executive power. In fact the government could not act in as sudden and arbitrary a fashion as that. It had to choose the time for its action with care, and to some extent it had to prepare the white electorate to accept what happened without question. The government also had to conceal its true intentions from the ANC without resorting to outright falsehood. Finally, it had to leave itself free to make a flexible response to the sort of unpredictable events which inevitably occur in political life and which often wreck the most carefully drafted plans. Formulating a policy to meet these contradictory objectives without giving the appearance of bad faith required much guile. The outcome, in the short term at least, was success.

How to Exist Politically and Learn from It: Hannah Arendt and the Problem of Democratic Education

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 556-575
Author(s):  
Gert Biesta
Keyword(s):  
Hannah Arendt ◽  
Democratic Education ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Moral Qualities ◽  
Democratic Life ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Background Context

Background/Context In discussions about democratic education, there is a strong tendency to see the role of education as that of the preparation of children and young people for their future participation in democratic life. A major problem with this view is that it relies on the idea that the guarantee for democracy lies in the existence of a properly educated citizenry so that once all citizens have received their education, democracy will simply follow. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The question that is explored in this article is whether it is possible to think of the relationship between education and democracy differently than in terms of preparation. This is important not only to be able to acknowledge the political nature of democratic education but also to be able to acknowledge the political “foundation” of democratic politics itself. Research Design The argumentation in the article is developed through a critical analysis and discussion of the work of Hannah Arendt, with a specific focus on her ideas about the relationship between education and politics and her views on the role of understanding in politics. Findings/Results Arendt's writings on the relationship between education and politics seem to be informed by a “developmentalistic” perspective in which it is maintained that the child is not yet ready for political life, so education has to be separated from politics and seen as a preparation for future participation in political life. Arendt's writings on politics and the role of understanding in political life point in a different direction. They articulate what it means to exist politically—that is, to exist together in plurality—and highlight that political existence is neither based on, nor can be guaranteed by, moral qualities such as tolerance and respect. Conclusions/Recommendations The main conclusion of the article is that democratic education should not be seen as the preparation of citizens for their future participation in political life. Rather, it should focus on creating opportunities for political existence inside and outside schools. Rather than thinking of democratic education as learning for political existence, it is argued that the focus of our educational endeavours should be on how we can learn from political existence.

Viktor Kel’ner, Shchit: M.M. Vinaver i evreiskii vopros v Rossii v kontse XIX–nachale XX veka (Shield: M.M. Vinaver and the Jewish Question in Russia at the End of the Nineteenth–Beginning of the Twentieth Century). St. Petersburg: Evreiskii Universitet v Sankt Peterburge. 508 pp.

2021 ◽  
pp. 294-296
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Jewish Question ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Strategic Choices

This chapter focuses on Viktor Kel'ner's biography of M. M. Vinaver. Kel'ner makes several strategic choices that frame the biography. First and foremost is the focus on Vinaver and Russian society. Kel'ner's approach emerges from his belief that Vinaver's main contribution was the idea, in theory and praxis, that only by embracing Russian liberalism would Jews gain their rights. This viewpoint became a fundamental truth for Vinaver and was realized in his professional, political, and personal life, as well as in his lifelong attachment to the Kadet Party and its ideals. Fittingly, the biography hones in on Vinaver in Russian and Russian Jewish political life. His broad involvement in Jewish cultural and historical activities receives less attention. Ultimately, the book's focus on the Russian context offers a wide lens on the Russian Jewish intelligentsia as a whole.

“Bustling Artisans”: Church Patronage at South Leith in the 1740s and 1750s

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Houston
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Church Administration ◽  
Presbyterian Church ◽  
The People ◽  
The City ◽  
The Town ◽  
Scottish Politics

Political participation in eighteenth-century Scotland was the preserve of the few. A country of more than one and a half million people had less than 3,000 parliamentary electors in 1788. Scottish politics was orchestrated from Westminster by one or two powerful patrons and their northern clients—a fact summarized in book titles like The People Above and The Management of Scottish Society. The way Edinburgh danced to a London tune is well illustrated in the aftermath of the famous Porteous riots of 1736. After a government official was lynched the Westminster government leaned heavily on the city and its council. And the nation as a whole was kept under tight rein after the Jacobite rising of 1745-46.This does not mean that ordinary people could not participate in political life, broadly defined. Burgesses could influence their day-to-day lives through membership of their incorporations (guilds) and through serving as constables and in other town or “burgh” (borough) offices. Ecclesiastical posts in the presbyterian church administration—elders and deacons of kirk sessions—had also to be filled. Gordon Desbrisay estimates that approximately one in twelve eligible men would be required annually to serve on the town council and kirk session of Aberdeen in the second half of the seventeenth century. With a 60% turnover of personnel each year, distribution of office holding must have been extensive among the middling section of burgh society from which officials were drawn. For burgesses and non-burgesses alike, other avenues of expression were open. In periods when political consensus broke down or when sectional interests sought to prevail townspeople could resort to riot.

Disaster Citizenship

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacob A. C. Remes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Emergency Powers ◽  
Social Landscape

A century ago, governments buoyed by Progressive Era beliefs began to assume greater responsibility for protecting and rescuing citizens. Yet the aftermath of two disasters in the United States–Canada borderlands—the Salem fire of 1914 and the Halifax explosion of 1917—saw working-class survivors instead turn to friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members for succor and aid. This book draws on histories of the Salem and Halifax events to explore the institutions—both formal and informal—that ordinary people relied upon in times of crisis. It explores patterns and traditions of self-help, informal order, and solidarity and details how people adapted these traditions when necessary. Yet, as the book shows, these methods—though often quick and effective—remained illegible to reformers. Indeed, soldiers, social workers, and reformers wielding extraordinary emergency powers challenged these grassroots practices to impose progressive “solutions” on what they wrongly imagined to be a fractured social landscape.

scholarly journals What's New with Numbers? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Quantification

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Mennicken ◽  
Wendy Nelson Espeland
Keyword(s):  
Personal Life ◽  
The Past ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
Sociological Approaches

Calculation and quantification have been critical features of modern societies, closely linked to science, markets, and administration. In the past thirty years, the pace, purpose, and scope of quantification have greatly expanded, and there has been a corresponding increase in scholarship on quantification. We offer an assessment of the widely dispersed literature on quantification across four domains where quantification and quantification scholarship have particularly flourished: administration, democratic rule, economics, and personal life. In doing so, we seek to stimulate more cross-disciplinary debate and exchange. We caution against unifying accounts of quantification and highlight the importance of tracking quantification across different sites in order to appreciate its essential ambiguity and conduct more systematic investigations of interactions between different quantification regimes.

The Social Role of Human Resources Teachers

2019 ◽  
pp. 1433-1443
Author(s):  
Agustin Galan Garcia ◽  
Roberto Fernandez Villarino
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Social Responsibility ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Social Role ◽  
Personal Life ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Direct Impact ◽  
The Social ◽  
Personal Level ◽  
Corporate Social

We consider it urgent to reflect on the need to build a new Corporate Social Responsibility that will in turn have a direct impact on a comprehensive human resources executive on a personal level. This professional will be competent in social skills, proactive, a specialist in avoiding conflict and a true part of the company's social aspect. Training is the essential tool to achieve this. This training must focus on thinking about values, must delve into the two-way humanist ideal that education gives, must value it and transform it afterwards. Also, it must take into account the student's interests, motifs and willingness so they may be able to establish the necessary interrelations that will allow for the connection between the individual's personal life and society.

Cultural Values and Democracy in the People's Republic of China

2000 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 540-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianjian Shi
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Life ◽  
People’S Republic Of China ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Political Interests

Are the values and attitudes of ordinary people in the People's Republic of China (PRC) compatible with behaviour necessary for a liberal democracy to evolve? Or are they likely to obstruct such evolution? Some surveys conducted in recent years within the PRC asked people of different backgrounds and residential areas if they were interested in politics and governance issues, if they conversed with others about their political interests, and if they believed they had some control over their political life. These and other related questions produced survey findings which are discussed and interpreted below to provide some conjectures about the questions posed above.

Microfinance in Empowering Tribal Women

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Tripathy
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Cultural Economic ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Tribal Women ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
Aggregate Population ◽  
The Impact

Women constitute nearly half of the aggregate population in India; but bulks of them are not empowered to participate in socio-cultural, economic and political life. Most of the women are unskilled and, as such, economically and socially dependent on men which rigorously restrict their prospect for socio-economic empowerment. The assumption is that investments of microfinance in microenterprises, small business, transmitted through women self-help groups, surges women’s access to productive occupation and income, enable women to make a greater contribution to household income and thereby improve well-being for women. Based on field studies conducted in the most backward tribal-dominated villages of KBK districts of Odisha and supplemented by secondary sources of data, this study seeks to investigate the impact of microfinance as a strategy in alleviating poverty and empowering tribal women.

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