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Article Challenges (article + challenge)
Selected AbstractsMasculinity and the Biographical Meanings of Management Theory: Lyndall Urwick and the Making of Scientific Management in Inter-war BritainGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 2 2001Michael Roper This article explores the biographical shaping of management theory. Using the British management theorist Lyndall Urwick (1891,1983) as a case study, it argues that existing understandings of the history of management studies are limited by their lack of attention to the emotional a priori of theory production. For men such as Frederick Taylor or Urwick, the work of composing management theory for a public audience was intimately connected to events and experiences in the private life. Theorizing addressed emotional dilemmas even while it strove to construct a separation between the personal and the organizational. Management theories are not only historically, socially or discursively constructed, but can be read in terms of the evidence they provide about individual subjectivity. Psychoanalytic concepts can help illuminate such relations. Theorizing can be seen as a form of play: as something which, in D.W. Winnicott's terms, takes place in the space between the psychic reality of the ,me' and the external world of the ,not me'. The ,classical' administrative theory represented by Taylor, Fayol and Urwick sought to create organizational structures which could stand apart from, and allow the management of, individual personalities. It simultaneously insisted on the status of theory as the ,not me'; that is, as a product which was not shaped by personal experience, but which constituted objective knowledge. The illusion of theory as a largely external, social product persists in much management and organization studies today. This article challenges that social determinism, first, by showing how Urwick's theories addressed issues of separation and intimacy, and second, by placing Urwick's work in the context of his relations with women. [source] Distant warriors, distant peace workers?GLOBAL NETWORKS, Issue 4 2008Multiple diaspora roles in Sri Lanka's violent conflict Abstract This article provides a critical, empirically based analysis of the multiple ways in which diaspora communities participate in transnational politics related to their war-affected former home countries. The case of Sri Lanka , and the Tamil and Sinhalese diasporas in the West , is used to illustrate how contemporary armed conflicts are increasingly waged in an international arena. Active diaspora groups have enabled an extension of nationalist mobilization, hostilities and polarization across the globe. Diaspora actors take part in propaganda work and fundraising in support of the belligerent parties in Sri Lanka, while the polarization between Sinhalese and Tamils is to a large extent replicated in the diaspora. However, there are also examples of diaspora groups that challenge war and militarism, for instance by calling for non-violent conflict resolution, condemning atrocities by both sides, and engaging in cross-ethnic dialogue. The article also argues that diaspora engagement in reconstruction of war-torn areas can be a double-edged sword, as it can reproduce , or reduce , grievances and inequalities that fuel the conflict. By discussing the many ways in which diasporas engage in homeland politics, the article challenges simplified understandings of diasporas as either,warriors'or,peace workers' in relation to their homeland conflicts. [source] Good Government Means Different Things in Different CountriesGOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2010MATT ANDREWS Work on good governance implies a one-best-way model of effective government. This has isomorphic influences on development, whereby governments are influenced to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to get things done. This article challenges whether such an approach exists, proposing that models actually do not hold even for the so-called effective governments. Governments look different, even if they are similarly called models of good government. This proposition is examined through a study of public financial management practices in a set of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and non-OECD countries. The study shows that effective governments are not more likely to exhibit better practice characteristics implied in one-best-way models. Good public financial management means different things in different countries. The article concludes by suggesting that good governance models give way to menus and the development community invest more time in examining why different countries select different menu items. [source] The Four Faces of Institutionalism: Public Policy and a Pluralistic PerspectiveGOVERNANCE, Issue 4 2000Simon Reich Contending conceptions of the "new" institutionalism claim to offer approaches that can develop generalizable social scientific theories of behavior. This article challenges that proposition, arguing that contingencies exist in which specific forms of institutionalism are best suited to addressing particular types of questions. Viewed through the prism of public policy, it develops the argument that ,policy dictates politics.' It suggests that four variants of institutionalism (historical, new economic, normative, and billiard ball) are each systematically most appropriate to examine the issues in the policy domains of redistribution, regulation, modernization, and liberalization, respectively. [source] Challenging the Bioethical Application of the Autonomy Principle within Multicultural SocietiesJOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2004Andrew Fagan abstract,This article critically re-examines the application of the principle of patient autonomy within bioethics. In complex societies such as those found in North America and Europe health care professionals are increasingly confronted by patients from diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. This affects the relationship between clinicians and patients to the extent that patients' deliberations upon the proposed courses of treatment can, in various ways and to varying extents, be influenced by their ethnic, cultural, and religious commitments. The principle of patient autonomy is the main normative constraint imposed upon medical treatment. Bioethicists typically appeal to the principle of patient autonomy as a means for generally attempting to resolve conflict between patients and clinicians. In recent years a number of bioethicists have responded to the condition of multiculturalism by arguing that the autonomy principle provides the basis for a common moral discourse capable of regulating the relationship between clinicians and patients in those situations where patients' beliefs and commitments do or may contradict the ethos of biomedicine. This article challenges that claim. I argue that the precise manner in which the autonomy principle is philosophically formulated within such accounts prohibits bioethicists' deployment of autonomy as a core ideal for a common moral discourse within multicultural societies. The formulation of autonomy underlying such accounts cannot be extended to simply assimilate individuals' most fundamental religious and cultural commitments and affiliations per se. I challenge the assumption that respecting prospective patients' fundamental religious and cultural commitments is necessarily always compatible with respecting their autonomy. I argue that the character of some peoples' relationship with their cultural or religious community acts to significantly constrain the possibilities for acting autonomously. The implication is clear. The autonomy principle may be presently invalidly applied in certain circumstances because the conditions for the exercise of autonomy have not been fully or even adequately satisfied. This is a controversial claim. The precise terms of my argument, while addressing the specific application of the autonomy principle within bioethics, will resonate beyond this sphere and raises questions for attempts to establish a common moral discourse upon the ideal of personal autonomy within multicultural societies generally. [source] Vajra Brother, Vajra Sister: Renunciation, Individualism and the Household in Tibetan Buddhist MonasticismTHE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, Issue 1 2000Martin A. Mills This article challenges two connected notions in the study of Tibetan Buddhism: that Buddhist monasticism is characterized by a pronounced move towards individualism, systematically detaching monks from relational social life; and that Tibetan Buddhist doctrines of karma represent an alternative mode of identity to those constructed within household life. By comparing the ritual practices and inheritance patterns associated with household groups in Ladakh with tantric ritual forms in local Buddhist (Gelukpa) monasteries, it is argued that they demonstrate pronounced structural similarities, centred on the shared symbolic construct of the household/temple as the source of socialized agency. An analysis of the meditative disciplines of Gelukpa monasticism is used to show how such training serves not to renounce kinship and household values, but to transform them into modes of religious authority, essential to the social position of monks (trapa) and incarnate lamas (tulku) in Tibetan Buddhism. [source] The Mining Industry and the State: The Politics of Tin Restriction in Bolivia, 1936,1939BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 1 2002John Hillman In the aftermath of the Chaco War (1932,1935) a strong left nationalist political current emerged in Bolivia which defined the three large mining companies of Patiņo, Hochschild and Aramayo as a superstate, controlling both the economy and the politics of the nation to their own advantage. This article challenges that characterisation by examining the way in which the state exercised control over the two largest producers. Unfortunately, the state lacked the technical capacity to use its powers responsibly, preventing the development of a coherent mining policy. [source] | ||||||||||