A Design-Driven Epistemology for Organization Design

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-71
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Magalhães
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Design Theory ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Organization Design ◽  
Theoretical Base ◽  
Symbolic Action ◽  
Managerial Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
Broad Interpretation ◽  
Organizational Reality

It is argued that the epistemological foundations of organization design can be built on a dual theoretical base: design-as-practice and design-as-meaning. The first is founded upon practice as part of current sociological theory applied to organizations (Schatzki, 2001; Nicolini, 2012) and the second is based on design theory (Krippendorff, 2006). If designing is defined as ‘to create meaning’ and if the symbolic action of managers plays a central role in the social construction of organizational reality, then meaning becomes a central concern for organization designing. On the other hand, while asserting that practice provides an ontological foundation for the artefacts which constitute the organization’s design, practice theory does not contain the mechanisms of intentionality and direction required by managerial action. The chapter ends with a broad interpretation of Davidson’s (2001) three types of knowledge—subjective, objective, and intersubjective—in terms of three broad groups of meanings found in organizations: managerially generated intended meanings, organizationally generated emergent meanings, and stakeholder generated perceived meanings.

‘Civil skepticism’ and the social construction of knowledge: A case in dendroclimatology

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 821-845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meritxell Ramírez-i-Ollé
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Sociological Theory ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Construction Of Knowledge ◽  
Blue Intensity

Early Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars recognized that the social construction of knowledge depends on skepticism’s parasitic relationship to background expectations and trust. Subsequent generations have paid less empirical attention to skepticism in science and its relationship with trust. I seek to rehabilitate skepticism in STS – particularly, Merton’s view of skepticism as a scientific norm sustained by trust among status peers – with a study of what I call ‘civil skepticism’. The empirical grounding is a case in contemporary dendroclimatology and the development of a method (‘Blue Intensity’) for generating knowledge about climate change from trees. I present a sequence of four instances of civil skepticism involved in making Blue Intensity more resistant to critique, and hence credible (in laboratory experiments, workshops, conferences, and peer-review of articles). These skeptical interactions depended upon maintaining communal notions of civility among an increasingly extended network of mutually trusted peers through a variety of means: by making Blue Intensity complementary to existing methods used to study a diverse natural world (tree-ring patterns) and by contributing to a shared professional goal (the study of global climate change). I conclude with a sociological theory about the role of civil skepticism in constituting knowledge-claims of greater generality and relevance.

The Social Construction of Our Bodies

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1186-1186
Author(s):  
Garth J. O. Fletcher
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
The Social

The Social Construction of a Perfect Market: The Strawberry Auction at Fontaines-en-Sologne

2010 ◽  
pp. 73-89
Author(s):  
M.-F. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Frame Of Reference ◽  
Social Conditions ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
The Social ◽  
Per Se

The article examines social conditions and mechanisms of the emergence in 1982 of a «Dutch» strawberry auction in Fontaines-en-Sologne, France. Empirical study of this case shows that perfect market does not arise per se due to an «invisible hand». It is a social construction, which could only be put into effect by a hard struggle between stakeholders and large investments of different forms of capital. Ordinary practices of the market dont differ from the predictions of economic theory, which is explained by the fact that economic theory served as a frame of reference for the designers of the auction. Technological and spatial organization as well as principal rules of trade was elaborated in line with economic views of perfect market resulting in the correspondence between theory and reality.

Negotiating Trouble: The Social Construction and Management of Trouble in a College Psychiatric Context

1978 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 461-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merton J. Kahne ◽  
Charlotte Green Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
The Social
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