Page 79 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

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50 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

Standard procedure in the guru industry is: used to promote various models of organiza-
identify some problem, formulate a model tion and management, ranging from a
solution, find some empirical material that to modernized version of Taylorism, to a polar
some extent supports the model, find a opposite of Taylorism inspired by sociotech-
catchy label, and promote the model globally nical systems design theory. It seems to be
as the way forward. The message is: Smart a general characteristic of popular guru
players are starting to adopt the model; do as concepts that they are open to diverse inter-
I advise you to do and rich rewards will be pretations, are flexible, and rife with internal
yours; ignore this message and you will find contradictions (Pruijt, 1998). The seeming
yourself stranded. convergence at the macro-level, which gov-
Let us consider an example from the field ernmentality theory suggests, does not imply
of the organization of work. A straightfor- determinism at the meso-level.
ward way to apply sociological knowledge
would be to offer training sessions on the
contrast between scientific management and
sociotechnical systems design. A problem, GLOBALIZATION, GOVERNANCE AND
however, is that many managers will not find UTOPIA
this interesting. In contrast, managers often
are much more attracted by the concept of In the early discussion on sociotechnics we
team work. Part of its popularity stems from meet references to Mannheim (1936), and
a global bestseller on the organization of pro- though the concept of utopia is not explicitly
duction (Womack et al., 1990) that took the addressed and elaborated as is done in the
Toyota production model – relabelling it as works of Gramsci (1971) and Bloch (1965)
‘lean production’ – and tried to make it and later on by Etzioni (2004), the existence
socially acceptable by adding (unsubstanti- of utopian visions of more democratic orga-
ated) claims about dynamic teams in which nizational forms is vivid in the considera-
workers learn and creatively apply profes- tions addressing questions of sociotechnics
sional skills. The authors presented it as a that contribute to the mobilization of civil
model that every company must implement. society and support the influence of the
A possible course of action for a practical common citizen. As such, the discussions
sociologist is to hop on the bandwagon of about sociotechnics have not only addressed
team work, but then to open up the discourse the day-to-day questions of conflicts in fam-
by presenting various dimensions of team ilies, organizations and social policy but also
work and their complex ramifications for raised the question of utopian ideals and
the mode of supervision, decision-making, grappled with the quest for feasible forms of
power relations and the logistical and discipli- social practices informed by these ideals.
nary context of work processes (Pruijt, 2003). Today these discussions are inevitably linked
Thus, the occurrence of a pervasive trend to questions surrounding recent trends in the
in governance does not imply that the sociol- globalization processes.
ogist has to choose between either joining the Globalization is one of the most frequently
fashionable rhetoric-reproducing flock or used terms in modern scholarly and everyday
retreating into post-modern theorizing. Within language. It has long joined the ranks of
concepts that conform to the dominant trend in such terms as ‘history’, ‘civilization’, ‘era’,
governance, there is space for widely divergent ‘progress’, ‘modernity’, ‘post-modernity’,
opinions and practices. This is exemplified by and other conceptual terms that express the
the concept of team work. While neatly style and character of the public mood and
encapsulating all the characteristics of the consciousness of our times. The appearance
current mode of governmentality (responsi- and proliferation of sentiments and move-
ble and disciplined autonomy, empowerment ments opposed to globalization, not just
and interaction among subjects), it can be in the West but in Russia and developing