Institutionalized Practice Research Articles

A Stark Examination of Prison Culture and Prison Ministry

Abstract: This article offers an insightful examination of prison ministry from the inside, from someone who has been involved with this ministry for over forty‐five years. The author discusses four major issues that are particularly costly, both in terms of personal human costs and also financial costs. First, society's misconceptions about prison violence, and the complex, varied ways prisoners experience violence. Second, the false sense of security the current practices of institutionalization create, and the consequences they have on the inmates. Third, the risk factors that can predispose children to ending up in prison, and the lack of care and attention those children often receive. And fourth, the way in which the criminalization of drug abuse has exacerbated many problems with the current prison system. The author concludes his article with some suggestions for reforming the prison system.

Deep plays

Clifford Geertz famously argued that careful ethnographic study of a society's games of chance can generate insight into that society's history, structure and culture. Adopting and extending the technique of the `ethnographic revisit', the author compares his own ethnographic data on the organization of casino card games in contemporary South Africa to Geertz's study of the Balinese cockfight. Three differences are delineated regarding the position of gambling as an institutionalized practice within the larger social matrix; the organization of the individual games; and the subjectivities produced through participation in the contests. These differences, it is argued, derive from divergent trajectories of post-colonial `governmentality' in Indonesia and South Africa. The Indonesian state continued a colonial-era ban on gambling. As a result, cockfighting remained embedded in local village life as a vehicle for expressing both traditional status honor and resistance to central authority. In contrast, the South African state reversed colonial prohibition by sanctioning corporate casinos. Social and political dimensions of gambling are here subsumed within an economic framework of action and understanding.

Confession, Anger and Cross-Cultural Articulation in Papua New Guinea

As will be evident from our introductory essay, the impetus for this Social Thought and Commentary section has come in part from our puzzlement at the co-occurrence within Melanesianist ethnography of two apparently contradictory motifs. One is the widely reported idea that one can never know what is in the minds of others, partly because what they say cannot be taken as a reliable indicator of what they are thinking. The other motif is the rising prominence of various more-or-less institutionalized practices of confession, as exemplified with respect to indigenized Christianity by the Urapmin example discussed by Robbins. These practices of confession would seem to stand in a problematical relationship to claims about the impossibility of knowing what is in the mind of another, since that is precisely what they would seem to be designed to reveal. The essays by Robbins and Schieffelin address this problem by taking the motif as their starting point and then considering new practices of confession and how they impact upon speech communities whose preexisting language ideologies would seem to deny the reliability or appropriateness of such disclosure. Here I approach the problem from the other way around, by looking first at practices of confession and then asking how they do or do not relate to linguistic ideologies. One point of this will be to show that, in at least some Melanesian locales, practices of confession did not begin only with the arrival of Christianity-that there were earlier forms of it which continue to be practiced alongside, and sometimes in tension with, the church-related ones. The question of the relationship between those older practices and the Christian ones is of especial interest in the context of comparative studies of confession that have been stimulated by Michel Foucault's well-known (1978, 1988) account of late medieval Christian practices of confession as the genealogical precursor and matrix of more recent, secular regimes that have produced the purportedly self-disciplined, modern subject. So far, these comparative studies have been carried out mainly by sociologists and historians, with little direct input from anthropologists. This is unfortunate, for two reasons. The first is that, sophisticated as some of this work has been when dealing with European historical sources, when drawing on anthropological ones it is often far less so. The other reason is that, as we hope these essays will demonstrate, such practices offer a fertile field for comparative study in connection with issues of interest to anthropologists (cf. Strathern and Stewart 1998:62). The fullest comparative studies of confession to date, by Hepworth and Turner (1982), and Abercrombie, Hill and Turner (1986:35-72 et passim), while taking issue with Foucault in some respects, have agreed in their finding that the confessional tradition in Europe laid the foundation for the modern personality as self-reflective consciousness (Abercrombie et al. 1986:47). These writers are well aware from their reading of ethnography that there are other confessional traditions outside of Europe which are of longstanding, but, adopting a Durkheimian position-which incidentally, obviates the issue of mental opacity altogether-they have argued that: confession outside the Western tradition normally assumes a collective, group nature, that is, the confession is a reflection not of the state of mind of the individual, but a reflection of the character of the social structure. We would suggest that such confessionals are in fact very Durkheimian: they are statements about collective properties and forms of public thought, reaffirmations of public values and communal practices, rather than reflections of an interior mentality (1986:46). Let us now consider this position in relation to some cases from Papua New Guinea. Turning first to confessional practices of the more traditional sort, in the Ku Waru area of the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea where Francesca Merlan and I have worked, there are well-established practices this kind which are referred to by two kinds of related expressions. …

Human Agents, Contexts, and Institutional Change: The Decline of Family in the Leadership of Business Groups

This study examines the interaction between change-minded human agents and environmental and organizational contingencies to understand contested change in highly institutionalized practices. We propose a theory of how individuals, including those who are structurally highly embedded, can become change agents when confronted with amplified institutional contradictions. Using the empirical example of family presence in the leadership of Taiwanese business groups, we argue that despite the structural constraints on second-generation key leaders, these leaders are more likely to actualize their motivation to reduce family presence in the contexts of market-oriented transition and highly diversified business groups, and that key leaders with a management education from the United States are more likely to deviate from this institutionalized practice than are non-U.S.-educated key leaders, because they can transport ideas from different business models. A longitudinal analysis of the top 100 business groups in Taiwan between 1977 and 1998 largely supports our arguments. This study contributes to recent endeavors to understand antecedents to institutional change with an explicit focus on the interplay between agency and context, and to business-group research by examining the change of one foundational feature of the group form.

Codes of Ethics and the Pursuit of Organizational Legitimacy: Theoretical and Empirical Contributions

The focus of this paper is to further a discussion of codes of ethics as institutionalized organizational structures that extend some form of legitimacy to organizations. The particular form of legitimacy is of critical importance to our analysis. After reviewing various theories of legitimacy, we analyze the literature on how legitimacy is derived from codes of ethics to discover which specific form of legitimacy is gained from their presence in organizations. We content analyze a sample of codes to consider the question of whether a strategic, self-interested rationale lies behind the adoption of a code of ethics. We propose that the process of employing codes of ethics in this strategic manner has become, through isomorphism, an institutionalized practice that itself confers a cognitive form of legitimacy to the organization and further distances the codes from their moral foundation.

The conflict within: resistance to inclusion and other paradoxes in special education

In the 30 years since the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL. 94–142) in 1975 (subsequently the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) special education in the USA as an institutionalized practice has become solidified. Over the years, however, the practice of segregating students because of disability has come under increased scrutiny. Beginning in the late 1980s, an increasing number of parents advocated that their children with disabilities be put in mainstream general education classes. Emotionally charged debates over the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms ensued. In this paper we look at the public debates over inclusion and expose some of the paradoxes within special education that serve to hinder the integration of individuals with disabilities into general classes and, by extension, society at large.

The Impact of Research and Teaching Evaluation in Universities: Comparing an Italian and a Dutch case

This article focuses on the impact of research and education evaluation on two universities: Trento State University (Italy) and the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). The article adopts a system approach to evaluation and proposes a model to describe and analyse evaluation systems. The analysis has been carried out by means of in‐depth interviews with key decision‐makers involved in the two universities. The analysis shows that many of the differences in impact can be linked to the different ‘evaluation stages’ the universities are currently in; the Italian university experiencing a number of novel effects, with the Dutch university reaping the benefits (and experiencing some problems) of having institutionalized evaluation practices.

Quality assessment in a turbulent environment: The case of the stockfish industry

Quality assessment is frequently applied in business-to-business marketing. It is usually assumed that quality assessment builds on the use of “objective” rules and criteria, but this is not always true. In a longitudinal study it was found that an institutionalized practice of quality assessment was based on both “objective” product characteristics, as well as more subjective supply/demand considerations, making quality assessment much more complex than usually assumed. Theoretical and managerial implications are highlighted.

HCI for people with cognitive disabilities

The self-advocacy movement (Dybwad & Bersani, 1996) grew out of resistance to oppressive practices of institutionalization (and worse) for people with cognitive disabilities. Moving beyond the worst abuses, people with cognitive disabilities seek as full participation in society as possible.

Urban Regeneration/Heritage Tourism Endeavours: The Case of Salt, Jordan ‘Local Actors, International Donors, and the State’

This paper focuses on several urban regeneration/heritage tourism projects in Jordan funded and orchestrated by international donor agencies in the 1990s. The research attempts to understand the mechanisms, rationales, internal and external forces, actors, experts, and power networks that privileged a particular discourse on urban generation based on a particular case study (Historic Old Salt Development Project). Discourse analysis and ethnographic encounters enabled the researcher to situate the Historic Old Salt Development Project as part of the overall strategy to upgrade the tourism sector and not out of a conscious motivation of urban regeneration and heritage management. The practice of urban regeneration/heritage management in Salt is tied to sporadic agents of power that generate shock treatments and very modest outcomes in the form of architectural cosmetics rather than an institutionalised practice.

Stocks of knowledge, simplification and unintended consequences: the persistence of post-war accounting practices in UK agriculture

In this paper, agricultural gross margin accounting is examined as an institutionalized practice, within a theoretical framework that embraces Giddens's theory of structuration and new institutionalism in sociology. An analysis of the transmission and maintenance of the institution suggests that it persists through the dominant advisory group within the industry. The development of private commercial consultancy in the industry and the decline of the university based government advisory schemes in the period from the Second World War led to simplified management accounting practices that are resistant to change. Another factor is the role of accounting education in the agricultural sector in the same period, and the paucity of conventional accounting knowledge in the sector. This study is based on both historical and written data covering the period from 1939 to 2003, and on interviews obtained from industry participants in 2001–2003. It is unusual in that it examines an accounting practice in which participation is voluntary, but that has become embedded and used nationally in the industry for over 40 years. It is also a story of how an academic innovation was diffused, with unintended consequences.

The institution of tenure: freedom or discipline?

Tenure, the permanency of employment offered to university professors, is discussed in the context of an institutionalized practice. This article examines the bases of legitimacy of this institution, specifically as a mechanism to protect academic freedom and trade‐off for higher pay. An analysis of the cases of two Canadian academics suggests that both of these bases of legitimacy are an institutional myth. By rendering the untenured faculty member highly visible and subject to measurement and classification, they are susceptible to intervention and management. As such, the preservation of tenure is rationalized in a rule‐like way that espouses its benefits and obfuscates its dark side. The resulting experiences indicate some negative consequences of tenure that do not receive widespread attention.

A utopian imagination in migration's terra incognita? acknowledging the non‐economic worlds of migration decision‐making

AbstractThis paper calls for us to show greater appreciation of the ‘non‐economic’ issues that inform much migration behaviour, balancing rather than replacing work done within the economic tradition. Drawing primarily on material concerned with internal migration within the so‐called developed world, attention is given to the enculturation of both migration theory and research as an entry point to work on this non‐economic dimension. From this springboard, the paper focuses on three lessons that can be learnt from ongoing research into migration ‘beyond’ the economic. Firstly, it notes a danger that this work assumes something of a separate and, arguably, subordinate status to that still being done on the crucial economic dimensions of migration. Secondly, and this time more positively, this non‐economic work challenges the existence of any economic reductionism within our understanding of migration. Thirdly, and most controversially, it is suggested that the non‐economic worlds of migration revealed through a culturally‐aware lens can facilitate the glimpsing of a more utopic imagination, critiquing key elements of our dominant socio‐economic and cultural institutionalised practices. Work on counterurbanisation and gendered tied migration is used to illustrate these three lessons. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Explorando o construto organização de aprendizagem no setor público: uma análise em órgão do poder executivo federal Brasileiro

O artigo descreve os principais resultados de uma pesquisa, realizada no ano de 2000, com o objetivo de investigar em que medida o Ministério da Integração Nacional caracteriza-se como uma ‘organização de aprendizagem’. Discute-se o campo da aprendizagem nas organizações, suas características e suas relações com inovação e mudança organizacionais. Dentre os fatores indicados na literatura, por caracterizar uma ‘organização de aprendizagem’, foram explorados os seguintes: visão compartilhada, visão sistêmica, modelos mentais, compartilhamento do conhecimento e ambiente de incentivo à crítica. Foram realizadas 26 entrevistas com gestores e técnicos de diferentes níveis hierárquicos do Ministério, apoiadas em roteiro semi-estruturado. Os resultados mostram que a organização estudada, apesar de apresentar algumas características que favorecem a aprendizagem, esta ainda não se tornou uma prática institucionalizada. Ao final, são feitas recomendações para o Ministério estudado, discutidas as limitações do trabalho e sugeridos novos estudos, visando a aprofundar o debate e o conhecimento sobre o tema.

Philosophy Practice: An Alternative to Counseling in Psychotherapy

Philosophy Practice: An Alternative to Counseling in Psychotherapy

Visões do golpe: A memória militar sobre 1964Os anos de chumbo: A memória militar sobre a repressão

Visões do golpe: A memória militar sobre 1964Os anos de chumbo: A memória militar sobre a repressão

Torture in Israel

The High Court's verdict is a major step forward insofar as that the existing institutionalized GSS torture practices are declared unlawful and are no longer possible in any institutionalized form. It appears, however, likely that Israel will attempt to reintroduce the legal use of different forms of “physical pressure” under specific circumstances. The legality of these forms in Israel is then likely to be tested by a High Court of Justice which is still clearly ambivalent and far from unequivocal in declaring all forms of physical means during interrogations to be unlawful. Whereas the Court's ruling declaring the present guidelines and various practices of “moderate physical force” unlawful is a positive step from a human rights perspective and in the context of the Middle East peace process, its significance might thus eventually turn out to be less of a breakthrough than initially thought. The international community has ample reason to continue to follow Israel critically regarding possible infractions of the Convention and the ICCPR.

Dramatizing sovereignty: the construction of territorial dispute in the Israeli–Egyptian border at Taba

Abstract Inter-state territorial conflicts are highly instructive of the complex nature of the concept of sovereignty and its modes of social construction in a world where the politicization of territory has become a highly institutionalized practice. However, more often than not, these conflicts revolve around tiny pieces of land lacking any ostensible value for both partners, thus calling into question the applicability of rational action assumptions in international relations. The dispute between Egypt and Israel all through the eighties over 1 km2 of desert called Taba, just after both states signed a peace agreement and Israel restored to Egyptian sovereignty over 60,000 km2 of land, is such an example. Drawing on constructivist and neo-institutionalist approaches that treat sovereignty as a social construct, we argue through the case of Taba that the dramatization of sovereignty and the status politics that motivate it, carried out by state and non-state actors in three different but interrelated arenas: the domestic, the regional and the international, are decisive factors in the constitution of sovereignty.

From Masses to Audience: changing media ideologies and practices in reform China

This article examines the historical trajectory and significance of the conceptual change from ''masses'' to ''audience'' in China's media reform. This change eroded Mao's ''Party-masses model'' of propaganda and its prescribed political and ideological relationship between the press and readers in both the discursive and practice domains of Chinese journalism. In journalistic discourse, the de-politicized conception of the audience as a new media ideology as well as a rhetorical device, coupled with the political and economic dynamics of marketization, circumvents the established interpretation of the roles and functions of the media to ''educate, agitate and organize the masses''. In journalistic practice, the ideational change makes it possible to incorporate audience surveys into media organizational routines. As an institutionalized practice, audience surveys promote and stabilize the notion of the audience and bestow it with currency in the routine operations of the media. The process of ideational institutionalization as formalization, routinization and normalization are characterized here. Through such a process, the concept of the audience becomes part of the institutional arrangement of Chinese media and opens up an institutional space for further reform activities. It also extends the basis of legitimacy for journalistic work, making way for the possibility of pluralistic news reporting and diversified media management.

Genres of Organizational Communication: A Structurational Approach to Studying Communication and Media

Drawing on rhetorical theory and structuration, this article proposes genres of organizational communication as a concept useful for studying communication as embedded in social process rather than as the result of isolated rational actions. Genres (e.g. the memo, the proposal, and the meeting) are typified communicative actions characterized by similar substance and form and taken in response to recurrent situations. These genres evolve over time in reciprocal interaction between institutionalized practices and individual human actions. They are distinct from communication media, though media may play a role in genre form, and the introduction of new media may occasion genre evolution. After the genre concept is developed, the article shows how it addresses existing limitations in research on media, demonstrates its usefulness in an extended historical example, and draws implications for future research.