Shamans, Bureaucrats, and Their Cosmologies: Local Religious Organisations in Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region

Over the course of the last 18 years, shamans in Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region have started to register “local religious organizations”. This development has transformed shamanism itself whilst also forcing the Ministry of Justice to articulate whether shamanism could be considered a religion. The article describes this process as an interactive loop: the classifiable (shamans) responds to the process of classification (state registration) and then changes that classification. The study hinges on two findings. First, the differences in the structure of shamanic organizations lead them to create fundamentally different ways of describing the world (classification systems). Secondly, some of these classifications align more closely with the language of the state. The author builds on the “grid and group” model by Mary Douglas, which is subsequently augmented with conceptual insights from Bernstein and Collins. The model makes it possible to highlight three types of organizations that respond differently to the language of state classification. The study is based on empirical data (40 interviews and participant observation) collected by the author during an expedition to Buryatia and the Irkutsk Region between December 2019 and January 2020.

Profiling Organizational Culture: Using Grid-Group Cultural Theory as a Lens to Take a Snapshot of an Organization’s Culture

This article draws from grid-group cultural theory (GGCT) to develop a survey instrument that allows to take an “adequate snapshot” of the culture of an organization. It specifies GGCT’s typology into 15 dimensions, situated in the two-dimensional space defined by the cross-tabulation of the grid and group axes. Those 15 dimensions are operationalized in a questionnaire that is used in two consecutive studies: one in 64 local police forces in Belgium and one in a large ministry of the Belgian federal government. Confirmatory factor analyses largely corroborate the 15-dimensional model. Multidimensional scaling indicates that the 15 dimensions largely take the positions in the two-dimensional space that GGCT would expect them to take. Finally, latent profile analysis identified six cultural profiles (i.e., particular combinations of the dimensions) in the studied work units, showing the potential benefits of a configural approach to the study of organizational culture in public sector organizations.

Understanding Differences between Equal Public Governance Models

Public administrations try to address changes in societies with various styles through various reforms based on different governance models, which are frequently transformed into domestic frames regardless of local specifics. The need for a tool with which the ideal types of governance models could be accommodated with national goals is, in times of increasing complexity, more and more relevant. As data as such are produced through numerous predispositions, the article proposes Ashby’s variety to capture the latter, through which it is possible to get closer to a successful administration of goals. On the other hand, Douglas’s grid and group model, Miles et al.’s organisational strategy, structure and process, and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are used for the identification of needs. Even though public bodies are aware of the impact that culture/values has/have on models of public administration, countries base their decisions on it/them only indirectly. This article emphasises that certain values should be directly included in the governance models in accordance with their cultural backgrounds. The latter are always present in decisions’ predispositions (from which decisions obtain their frames and weights), and a successful administrator should not disregard them.

O potrzebie mistrza w świecie nauki, czyli refleksja nad zmieniającą się relacją uczeń – mistrz

Tekst jest próbą rekonstrukcji relacji mistrz – uczeń kształtujących się w polu naukowym z wykorzystaniem koncepcji Richarda Sennetta (wzory fachowca i mistrza) i Mary Douglas (grid and group). Zawiera charakterystykę czterech zróżnicowanych typów relacji wytwarzanych w warunkach występowania bądź braku wspólnych podstaw paradygmatycznych (spójnych narzędzi kategoryzowania badanej rzeczywistości) oraz strukturalnych zależności (dotyczących zasobów materialnych, aparatury laboratoryjnej itp.), które można odnieść do określonych dziedzin wiedzy. Zwraca również uwagę na zróżnicowane potrzeby w zakresie relacji mistrz-uczeń w naukach przyrodniczych oraz społecznych i humanistycznych, a także na możliwe konsekwencje w tym wymiarze powodowane zasadami parametryzacji aktywności naukowej.

Social-Scientific Readings of the Gospel and Letters of John

This chapter surveys the development of social-scientific readings of the Johannine Gospel and Letters in roughly chronological order from the introduction of the sociology of knowledge and sectarianism to Johannine scholarship by Wayne Meeks in 1972, and the application of sectarian perspectives, especially influenced by Bryan Wilson’s typology of sectarianism, in the 1980s and 1990s. Sociolinguistic insights into anti-society and anti-language to understand the Johannine Sondersprache were also introduced in the 1980s together with Mary Douglas’ notions of grid and group and notions of Mediterranean culture. Applications of sectarianism and Mediterranean culture continued into the 2000s, but were accompnaied by new interests in identity, including the tension between Judean ethnic and Christ-movement identities in the Fourth Gospel, and in collective memory studies. All of these approaches continue to have a role in understanding the Johannine corpus.

Ethnicity as inclusion and exclusion

Purpose Accounting research has struggled with how ethnicity is to be understood in relation to concepts such as nation and nationality and how ethnicity may impact on accounting and auditing practices, behaviours, education and professional values. These themes are explored and developed in the papers presented in this special issue. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to explore the contrasting theoretical and methodological approaches reflected by the papers in the issue. Design/methodology/approach This is a reflective and analytical paper which explores how notions of ethnicity are conceived and operationalised in accounting research. The authors identified two distinctive analytic ordering processes evident within this AAAJ Special issue: Mary Douglas’ scheme of Grid and Group and the Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptual tools of field, capital and habitus. Findings The “Grid and Group” Culture Theory with Bourdieu’s theoretical tools evident in the papers provide powerful tools to explore the relationship between ethnicity and accounting both conceptually and empirically, suggesting that ethnicity can be deployed to reveal and challenge institutionalised racism. This paper highlights the potential to integrate elements of the “Grid and Group” Culture Theory and Bourdieu’s theoretical tools. The issue of ethnicity and the relationship between ethnicity and accounting should be more fruitfully explored in future. Research limitations/implications The authors acknowledge the challenges and limitations of discussing the issue of ethnicity from any particular cultural perspective and recognise the implicit dominance of White Anglo centric perspectives within accounting research. Originality/value The papers presented in the special issue illustrate that the issue of ethnicity is complex and difficult to operationalise. This paper highlights the potential to move beyond the ad hoc application of theoretical and methodological concepts to operationalise coherent concepts which challenge and extend the authors’ understanding of accounting as a social and contextual practice. But to achieve this it is necessary to more clearly integrate theory, methodology, method and critique.