Masters of the Universe: Power and Elites in Organization Studies

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Case Histories ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Hybrid Governance ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Universe

Elite analysis has re-emerged as a central theme in contemporary organization studies. This paper builds on recent contributions to this revitalized field by developing a distinctive theoretical approach and substantive agenda for the study of power relations and elite ruling in organization studies. By drawing on a realist/materialist ontology and a neo-Weberian analytical framework, the paper identifies the idea of ‘command situations’ as the key concept for identifying changing mechanisms and forms of elite domination and control in contemporary socio-political orders. Three case histories are subsequently discussed in order to provide illustrative examples of the way in which this analytical framework can enhance our understanding of the complex interplay between ‘institutional’ and ‘interstitial’ power as it shapes the emergence of hybrid governance regimes through which contemporary regimes of elite domination and rule become organized.

Boilerplate

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret Jane Radin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Jury Trial ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
New Methods ◽  
And Control ◽  
Fine Print

Boilerplate—the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click “I agree” online, rent an apartment, or enter an employment contract, for example—pervades all aspects of our modern lives. On a daily basis, most of us accept boilerplate provisions without realizing that should a dispute arise about a purchased good or service, the nonnegotiable boilerplate terms can deprive us of our right to jury trial and relieve providers of responsibility for harm. Boilerplate is the first comprehensive treatment of the problems posed by the increasing use of these terms, demonstrating how their use has degraded traditional notions of consent, agreement, and contract, and sacrificed core rights whose loss threatens the democratic order. This book examines attempts to justify the use of boilerplate provisions by claiming either that recipients freely consent to them or that economic efficiency demands them, and it finds these justifications wanting. It argues that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses. To improve legal evaluation of boilerplate, the book offers a new analytical framework, one that takes into account the nature of the rights affected, the quality of the recipient's consent, and the extent of the use of these terms. It goes on to offer possibilities for new methods of boilerplate evaluation and control, and concludes by discussing positive steps that NGOs, legislators, regulators, courts, and scholars could take to bring about better practices.

Galileo Unbound

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Nolte
Keyword(s):  
Free Fall ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Quantum Field ◽  
Many Worlds ◽  
Quantum Particles ◽  
Light Rays ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Insight Into

Galileo Unbound: A Path Across Life, The Universe and Everything traces the journey that brought us from Galileo’s law of free fall to today’s geneticists measuring evolutionary drift, entangled quantum particles moving among many worlds, and our lives as trajectories traversing a health space with thousands of dimensions. Remarkably, common themes persist that predict the evolution of species as readily as the orbits of planets or the collapse of stars into black holes. This book tells the history of spaces of expanding dimension and increasing abstraction and how they continue today to give new insight into the physics of complex systems. Galileo published the first modern law of motion, the Law of Fall, that was ideal and simple, laying the foundation upon which Newton built the first theory of dynamics. Early in the twentieth century, geometry became the cause of motion rather than the result when Einstein envisioned the fabric of space-time warped by mass and energy, forcing light rays to bend past the Sun. Possibly more radical was Feynman’s dilemma of quantum particles taking all paths at once—setting the stage for the modern fields of quantum field theory and quantum computing. Yet as concepts of motion have evolved, one thing has remained constant, the need to track ever more complex changes and to capture their essence, to find patterns in the chaos as we try to predict and control our world.

scholarly journals Oxygen Is Instrumental for Biological Signaling: An Overview

Oxygen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-15
Author(s):  
John T. Hancock
Keyword(s):  
Oxidative Stress ◽  
Superoxide Anion ◽  
Nitrosative Stress ◽  
Redox Status ◽  
Complex Interplay ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Form Part ◽  
High Concentrations ◽  
And Control ◽  
Signaling Components

Control of cellular function is extremely complex, being reliant on a wide range of components. Several of these are small oxygen-based molecules. Although reactive compounds containing oxygen are usually harmful to cells when accumulated to relatively high concentrations, they are also instrumental in the control of the activity of a myriad of proteins, and control both the upregulation and downregulation of gene expression. The formation of one oxygen-based molecule, such as the superoxide anion, can lead to a cascade of downstream generation of others, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the hydroxyl radical (∙OH), each with their own reactivity and effect. Nitrogen-based signaling molecules also contain oxygen, and include nitric oxide (NO) and peroxynitrite, both instrumental among the suite of cell signaling components. These molecules do not act alone, but form part of a complex interplay of reactions, including with several sulfur-based compounds, such as glutathione and hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Overaccumulation of oxygen-based reactive compounds may alter the redox status of the cell and lead to programmed cell death, in processes referred to as oxidative stress, or nitrosative stress (for nitrogen-based molecules). Here, an overview of the main oxygen-based molecules involved, and the ramifications of their production, is given.

scholarly journals Gossip as evaluative sensemaking and the concealment of confidential gossip in the everyday life of organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 135050762097936
Author(s):  
Ziyun Fan ◽  
Patrick Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Distinct Form ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Learning Paradox ◽  
Espoused Values ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
And Behavior

Gossip is pervasive at the workplace, yet receives scant attention in the sensemaking literature and stands on the periphery of organization studies. We seek to reveal the non-triviality of gossip in processes of sensemaking. In drawing on empirical data from an observational study of a British Media firm, we adopt a processual perspective in showing how people produce, understand, and enact their sense of what is occurring through gossip as an evaluative and distinct form of informal communication. Our research draws attention to the importance of gossip in the routines of daily practice and the need to differentiate general from confidential gossip. We discuss how gossip continuously informs learning as evaluative sensemaking processes that encourages critiques and evaluation to shape future action and behavior. Within this, we argue how confidential gossip can challenge power relations while remaining part of formal authority structures, constituting forms of pragmatic and micro-resistance. This shadowland resistance provides terrain for learning that both criticizes and preserves espoused values and cultural norms. We conclude that confidential gossip as an evaluative and secretive process provokes a learning paradox that both enables and constrains forms of resistance in reinforcing and simultaneously questioning power relations at work.

scholarly journals What makes human–animal relations ‘organizational’? The de-scription of anthrozootechnical agencements

Organization ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 761-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Doré ◽  
Jérôme Michalon
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Performance Test ◽  
Dairy Farm ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Relational Properties ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Human Animal

Questions concerning animals’ role in society have received little attention from Organization Studies. This article develops and tests some theoretical and methodological propositions aimed at contributing to the elaboration of an analytical framework for interpreting our organized relations with animals and furthering our understanding of what makes human–animal relations ‘organizational’. First, examining the role of animals in the ‘non-human turn’ that has been emerging, especially with the Actor–Network Theory and the Symmetrical Anthropology project, it adresses the limits of the ‘non-human’ category to analyze situations of coordination of collective action involving animals. It then develops the concept of anthrozootechnical agencement to envisage the role of animals in the course of action through the lens of their relational properties and applies the notion of script to propose an operational formulation of the specifically organizational trials to which these particular agencements are subjected. Based on three case studies (the role of the leash in the organization of human–dog relations, the management of wolves’ return to France, and the production of milk on a dairy farm), this article shows that two main types of operation make human–animal relations ‘organizational’: first, the organization of anthrozootechnical relations is constituted by and constitutive of the combination of three types of specifically organizational test to which these particular agencements are subjected (the performance test, the coherence test, and the dimensioning test); second, the work of organizing anthrozootechnical relations then consists in elaborating, executing, and transforming heterogeneous scripts that are never strictly indexed on the nature (human, animal, technique) of the entities they concern.

Hippocrates and Early Greek Medicine

2018 ◽  
pp. 214-232
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Craik
Keyword(s):  
Vascular System ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Medical Writing ◽  
Detailed Account ◽  
Case Histories ◽  
Hippocratic Corpus ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Medical Writers

The chapter surveys early Greek medicine, primarily the works attributed to Hippocrates, but also evidence for other medical writing, such as that in the Anonymus Londinensis papyrus, and in the fragments of the pre-Socratics. It is noted that the fragments of Alcmaeon indicate experience in dissection of animals, that Diogenes of Apollonia gives a detailed account of the vascular system, and that Plato has an extensive biomedical section in Timaeus. In general, early medical writers show concern with the relation of microcosm to macrocosm and of human life to the universe; also, with opposing principles (hot and cold, wet and dry, thick and thin, rare and dense) such that health is commonly seen in terms of bodily balance and avoidance of excess. The seventy or so works of the Hippocratic corpus cover a wide range of subjects, notably prognostic signs, surgery, gynecology, case histories and aphoristics lore.

scholarly journals The Public Employee Facing Unconstitutional Policies: Organization, State, Power, Stability and Social Control

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helder Gusso
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Control Agency ◽  
Public Employee ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Control

This article highlights the duty of the public employee to oppose any government policy that goes against constitutional principles and objectives. The defence of this position is made from an organizational analysis of the State. Theoretical contributions such as the understanding of State and Domination in M. Weber, Organization in D. Katz and R.L. Khan, and Control Agency in B.F. Skinner have been used. The analysis of contingencies that control the behavior of the public employee and the understanding of the notions of State and Organizations enable greater clarity about what constitutes the role of workers in the public sector. It also highlights the importance of existing mechanisms to reduce the imbalance in power relations between governors, servants and the population.

scholarly journals MANAJEMEN PENDIDIKAN ANAK DALAM KELUARGA

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 134
Author(s):  
Aimi Aimi
Keyword(s):  
Family Environment ◽  
Education Management ◽  
Happy Life ◽  
Family Issues ◽  
The Family ◽  
Child Education ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Family Based ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Universe

<p>The concept of Child Education Management according to the Qur'an". The Qur'an is a revelation of God which was revealed to Prophet Muhammad as the eternal miracle of all time. The Qur'an is the Holy Book of the Muslims which contains guidelines for a happy life and guidance of the world and the hereafter. It contains worship, morals, exemplary story, occult news, universe and so on. Even the Qur'an mentions that It also functioned as an explanation of all things (tibyanan likulli sya-in) (QS. An Nahl/16:89). This reaffirms that there is no exception, everything in the universe has<br />its explanation from the Holy Qur'an. No exception regarding family issues, especially related to parenting and education for children who grew up in his family environment. The main problems in this research is how is the concept of child education management according to the Qur'an in the<br />family? In line with that, the Holy Qur'an encourage every parent to feel worried, if then behind the day after, they left a weak generation (QS. An Nisa '/4:9). This is the requirement so that each moslem parent are able to manage their children's education so they can grow and develop a independently. For that, it needs a pattern and attempts so that the process can go as desired. The method used in the writing of this thesis is the method of thematic tafseer (maudhu'i). And the purpose of the research is to be able to find the concept of child education management in a family that Qur'anic. Ultimately it is hoped that the concept of child education management within the family based on the Qur'an will be the solution to achieve the goals of parents to have pleasant children (QS. Al Furqan/25:74), starting with the planning (planning) (QS. Al Anfal/8:60),<br />organizations (organizing) (QS. Ash Shaff/61:4), applications (actuiting) (QS. At-Tawba: 105/9) and control (controlling) (QS. QAF/50:16-18). The four stages above, are big agendas for each moslem family in order for their children to become shalih and shalihah. Good cooperation between husband and wife in dividing duties and obligations as a father and mother became the key word in determining the success of the process of upbringing and education of their children to become a perfect human being as they expected</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keyword : </strong>management, education, child, family</p>

The White Lady Travels: Narrating Fez and Spacing Colonial Authority in Edith Wharton's In Morocco

Hawwa ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lhoussain Simour
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Colonial Discourse ◽  
Travel Narrative ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Colonial Authority ◽  
And Control

AbstractForegrounding Orientalism as a system of thought that has produced constructed images and disfigured discourses about Europe's Other, this paper is primarily concerned with the practice of delineating landscape and manipulating the space of Fez in Edith Wharton's In Morocco. It starts with a rereading of Edward Said's model of analysis and then moves to an investigation into how this travel narrative displays, vulgarizes, and reproduces one of the strategies characteristic of colonial discourse: the mapping of the colonial space, specifically through the inscription of self and Other power relations, fueled up by a will to knowledge and control over new territories. It also attempts to read Wharton's narrative against Sara Mills' argument, which claims that it is gender rather than genre that is at the genesis of colonial heterogeneity.

Trust, but verify.. Power relations and control practices in a smart working environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
Silvia Doria
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Top Down ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
The World ◽  
Relevant Role ◽  
Smart Working ◽  
Banking Institution ◽  
And Control

The world of working is changing and the technological transformations are playing a relevant role in this change. In particular, new technologies are making the physical boundaries of traditional offices increasingly permeable, allowing the diffusion of New Ways of Working (Demerouti et al., 2014; Koops and Helms, 2014), such as smart working. This paper, based on a qualitative research and discursive interviews, intends to reflect on the introduction and top-down management of smart working within a banking institution. At the same time, it aims to grasp the role attributed to and played by technology in its implementation. Starting from the two reconstructed stories, I shall show if and how the innovations introduced whereby technologies enable us to work remotely, are changing existing power relations and what control dynamics emerge from the field.

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