Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@@The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration.
TL;DR: Giddens as mentioned in this paper has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade and outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form.
Abstract: Anthony Giddens has been in the forefront of developments in social theory for the past decade. In "The Constitution of Society" he outlines the distinctive position he has evolved during that period and offers a full statement of a major new perspective in social thought, a synthesis and elaboration of ideas touched on in previous works but described here for the first time in an integrated and comprehensive form. A particular feature is Giddens' concern to connect abstract problems of theory to an interpretation of the nature of empirical method in the social sciences. In presenting his own ideas, Giddens mounts a critical attack on some of the more orthodox sociological views. "The Constitution of Society" is an invaluable reference book for all those concerned with the basic issues in contemporary social theory.
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TL;DR: This article examined two traditions of public management that operate in these organizations and focus on how each tries to direct front-line action, finding that there is an ongoing social process not capitalized upon by existing management approaches and offers a new explanation for the persistence of certain management challenges in these sectors.
Abstract: This article investigates front-line conditions within two sectors charged with the delivery of social welfare programspublic bureaucracies and private contractors. I examine two traditions of public management that operate in these organizations and focus on how each tries to direct front-line action. Drawing upon ethnographic data, I discover a disjuncture between these management frameworks and day-to-day front-line operations. A body of social theory that posits that individuals both create and are constrained by social structures is used to understand these findings. The application of this theory both suggests that there is an ongoing social process not capitalized upon by existing management approaches and offers a new explanation for the persistence of certain management challenges in these sectors. The article concludes with a discussion of research propositions and management techniques that emerge from this inductive analysis.
290 citations
Cites background or methods from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...Drawing upon the work of social theorists such as Anthony Giddens (1984), William Sewell (1992), and other organizational scholars (Ranson, Hinings, and Greenwood 1980; Riley 1983; Willmott 1987; Orlikowski 1992; Feldman 1999), I argue that this social process has structural significance.1 The…...
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...Drawing upon the work of social theorists such as Anthony Giddens (1984), William Sewell (1992), and other organizational scholars (Ranson, Hinings, and Greenwood 1980; Riley 1983; Willmott 1987; Orlikowski 1992; Feldman 1999), I argue that this social process has structural significance.1 The structures, though, are not imposed through organizational charts, formal procedures, or written rules that staff passively enact....
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...Giddens, Anthony....
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...For the last twenty years, social theorists such as Giddens (1984), Sewell (1992), and others (Ritzer 1981; Archer 1988; Bourdieu 1990) have been wrestling with trying to understand how individuals can both constitute and be constituted by social structures....
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...The first are the schemes: the norms, collective beliefs, and shared knowledge that people develop when operating within a particular social context.7 The second are the resources: the concrete objects, authority, and tools valued within a particular social context (Giddens 1984; Sewell 1992)....
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01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In some countries and subdisciplines, discourse theory has almost become the dominant paradigm, while in other places it has remained marginal as discussed by the authors, and very few areas of research have been able to withstand the impact of its new ideas.
Abstract: During the last decade there has been mounting interest in various kinds of discourse theory and discourse analysis within what we can broadly define as the social sciences. This is evidenced by the growing number of publications, workshops, conference panels, university courses, and dissertations that draw on the intellectual resources of discourse theory. Some countries and subdisciplines have been more susceptible than others to the influence of the new theories of discourse. In some places, discourse theory has almost become the dominant paradigm, while in other places it has remained marginal. However, very few areas of research have been able to withstand the impact of its new ideas.
289 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: It is proposed that multiparty collaborative practice can be understood as constituting a "collective reflection-in-action" cycle through which an information systems (IS) design emerges as a result of agents producing, sharing, and reflecting on explicit objects.
Abstract: Growth of business-to-consumer (B2C) applications such as electronic storefronts, catalogues, and customer support websites has drawn a great number of diverse stakeholders into the IS Development (ISD) practice. Marketing, strategy, and graphic design specialists have joined a variety of technical professionals and business stakeholders in developing B2C applications. Oftentimes, these professionals work for different organizations with different histories, cultures, and reward structures. A longitudinal qualitative field study of a B2C application development project was undertaken in order to build an in-depth understanding of the collaborative practices of diverse professionals in ISD projects. The paper proposes that the multi-party collaborative practice can be understood as a A¢Â¬ÂScollective reflection-in-actionA¢Â¬Â? cycle through which an IS design emerges as a result of agents producing, sharing, and reflecting upon material objects. Agents from diverse backgrounds exert different influences over emergent designs depending on their organization, profession, and project involvement-based power relations. These power relations shape whether collaborators A¢Â¬ÂSadd toA¢Â¬Â? A¢Â¬ÂSignore,A¢Â¬Â? or A¢Â¬ÂSchallengeA¢Â¬Â? the work produced by others. In turn, agentsA¢Â¬Â" actions either reinforce or transform existing power relations depending on who gets to claim credit for and ownership of the emergent design. Implications for the study of boundary objects, team diversity, organizational learning, and contemporary ISD are drawn.
289 citations
Cites background or methods from "Locating the 17th Book of Giddens@@..."
...It highlights the duality of structure and action: A designer “shapes” the situation and the situation “talks back” by producing unintended changes, giving the situation a new meaning (Schön 1983: 79, 131)....
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...I have adopted a practice-theoretical stance (Bourdieu 1977, Giddens 1984) and focused on what people do and how their actions shape and are shaped by organizational, professional, and project involvement-based power relations....
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TL;DR: In this paper, a social and conversational model of experiential learning is put forward, where learning and influence are seen to emerge as part of an ongoing negotiated process, and the learning identified, is understood therefore as a negotiated process within a complex network of domestic, voluntary, commercial and professional relations.
Abstract: Applying social concepts to the social relations that the entrepreneur maintains, this research seeks to identify the impact of these relationships, and the learning that might result from them, on the decision‐making process. A social and conversational model of experiential learning is put forward, where learning and influence are seen to emerge as part of an ongoing negotiated process. This argument complements Kolb's “fundamentally cognitive” theory of experiential learning, by challenging the view that the learner should be viewed as an “intellectual Robinson Crusoe”, and stating that even when an individual reflects and theorises their thoughts have a social character. Data were collected using critical incident technique through one‐to‐one in‐depth interviews over several weeks. The paper goes some way to confirm the importance of networks in the business development process, helping further to define how networks exist. The learning identified, is understood therefore as part of an ongoing negotiated process within a complex network of domestic, voluntary, commercial and professional relations.
288 citations
Additional excerpts
...So how are entrepreneurs learning to operate effectively without recourse to formalised methods of training? ( Giddens, 1984...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors employ real options-theoretic reasoning to develop a theory of business incubation, which seeks to predict and explain how business incubators and the process of business formation increase the likelihood that new ventures will survive the early stages of development.
Abstract: This article employs real options-theoretic reasoning to develop a theory of business incubation. This theory seeks to predict and explain how business incubators and the process of business incubation increase the likelihood that new ventures will survive the early stages of development. It conceptualizes the incubator as an entrepreneurial firm that sources and macro-manages the innovation process within emerging organizations, infusing these organizations with resources at various developmental stage-gates while containing the cost of their potential failure. The incubator is the unit of analysis while incubation outcomes—measured in terms of incubatee growth and financial performance at the time of incubator exit—provide indicators of success. Our model of the incubation process and specification of the range of possible incubation outcomes offer implications for managerial practice and policy-making vis-a-vis incubator management and good entrepreneurial failure.
287 citations
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