neo-Weberian Theory Research Articles

What is the Public Interest in Professional Regulation? Canadian Regulatory Leaders’ Views in a Context of Change

Professions are regulated in the public interest, but precisely what the term “public interest” means can vary across time and place. Research exploring changes to professional regulation in the West has begun to identify such shifts: for instance, highlighting the emphasis on consumer satisfaction and public protection over other potential meanings of the public interest. To understand these societal shifts and their implications for professional regulation, this article first reviews neo-Weberian theories of rationalization, and empirical literature. Subsequently, it presents findings from interviews with regulatory leaders across six Canadian provinces to determine if the trends in rationalization identified are reflected in leaders’ accounts of professional regulation in the public interest. Interviews reveal that many leaders define the public interest in ways consistent with technical rationality, including a safety lens and consumer orientation; however, there is also evidence of broader meanings and values. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The neo-Weberian state and the neodevelopmentalist strategies in Latin America: the case of Uruguay

This article seeks to contribute to the development of the neo-Weberian theory of public administration by making it travel to the Latin American context. We argue that this model of public administration reform, identified in continental European states, tends to be present in some Latin American countries that have followed neodevelopmentalist models of economic development. The neo-Weberian political strategy promotes a public sector modernization that enhances its steering and coordination capacities which is functional to a neodevelopmental view that aims to rebuild the state’s central role in leading economic growth and social cohesiveness. Yet, the public management model that is implanted resembles an ‘imperfect’ neo-Weberianism due to the institutional deficiencies of these countries and the difficulties in providing a clear reform script. We provide this link by decoding the main outlines of the public management model in Uruguay in the context of the reforms implemented by the Frente Amplio.Points for practitionersThe article demonstrates two central points. First, that the processes of public sector reform are usually linked to other broader development strategies and to calculations of political feasibility. This can explain to some extent the options taken by politicians. Second, public sector reforms are often a combination of multiple administrative doctrines. This poses the risk of being unsystematic, incoherent or even contradictory.

Shiatsu practitioners: Forging a path through a landscape of practice

This thesis is an exploratory study of Shiatsu as a distinct type of healthcare practice. Situated within the sociology of the professions as the wider academic context, this study focuses on Shiatsu practitioners and the process of professionalisation in relation to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Neo-Weberian theory is used to examine the field of CAM, highlighting its marginalisation by the medical profession. What counts as legitimate knowledge is raised as an important question in relation to the process of professionalisation and CAM. Ethnography and narrative inquiry form the basis of the methodological approach. My experiences as a Shiatsu practitioner gave me ‘deep familiarity’ in the field of my research and I examine the challenges in this respect and discuss reflexivity as a methodological tool. The recruitment strategy led to a spectrum of participants’ experiences across a broad temporal dimension and I argue this is a particular strength of the study. Concepts of ‘social positioning’ and ‘turning points’ provide important theoretical considerations of the analytic framework. The data-led chapters collectively form a trajectory of participants’ pathways through a ‘landscape of practice’. These chapters highlight key tensions and turning points in relation to the trajectory of ‘Getting into Shiatsu’ and ‘Getting out there to practise Shiatsu’, particularly in respect of the status of knowledge and earning a living as a Shiatsu practitioner. These tensions are discussed in the context of professionalisation, and highlight some of the wider structural factors -for example the interface of Shiatsu with the NHS, other CAM practices as well as society in general. The issue of marginalisation provides a connection between Etienne Wenger-Trayner’s concept of landscapes of practice and neo-Weberian theory in relation to CAM practices. The experiences of participants in this study are potentially relevant to other practitioners not only in other marginalised emerging professions but also practitioners in more established professions.

CONTESTED STATEHOOD AND STATE-BUILDING IN HAITI

This article bridges global and Haiti-specific debates on statehood, the political economy of state and state (de)formation, as well as the conceptualization andmeasurement of those phenomena. Drawing on data sets and secondary literatures from Haiti and beyond, it argues that despite the unique features of the extremely weak state in Haiti, that case can usefully be compared to the range of weak to fairly strong states in Latin America and the Caribbean. In the process, the article makes a case for considering degrees of sovereignty as an integral dimension of statehood in the region and elsewhere. It demonstrates the relevance of concepts used in other articles in this volume, such as ‘weakness by design’, in the Haitian case. The article ends by suggesting that it would be useful to look beyond neo-Weberian theories, for example by incorporating critical feminist analysis, to understand the different faces of state weakness and their social construction in the region.

Anzianità e stratificazione sociale: concetti, metodo e tecniche della ricerca AGING

Merit, desert, satisfaction of basic needs, equality of results are the criteria mainly used to distribute resources and opportunities for workers – as wages, pensions, career, qualifications, training, job tenure and other benefits. Other criteria used for this purpose – mostly in defense of entitlements – are seniority, educational credentials and professional skills. These criteria are justified by more or less consistent set of arguments, called legitimation formulas or ideologies according to the context of analysis. In public rhetoric evoked in distributional conflicts it is difficult not to find some reference to these types of authorization of resource distribution. The relationship between seniority and social stratification was so far little explored by sociological research. The criterion of seniority, from the standpoint of a neo-weberian theory of class, is a strategy of exclusion that benefits members of the cohorts of older workers, placed in the system of guarantees.Purpose of the survey AGING, whose first results are presented in this issue of “Quaderni di sociologia”, is to examine the positive and normative believes on the main distributive criteria of a national sample of workers (n = 2502). Workers were interviewed by CATI in spring 2011. This paper describes the construction phases of the survey AGING, from the definition of the main terms of the problem until the construction of a structured questionnaire. The text of the questionnaire is attached.

Prisoner reentry as myth and ceremony

The carceral boom in post-Civil Rights America results not from profit-seeking but from state-crafting. Accordingly, we must slay the chimera of the “Prison Industrial Complex” and forsake its derived tale of the “Prisoner Reentry Industry.” This murky economic metaphor is doubly misleading: first, most released convicts experience not reentry but ongoing circulation between the prison and their dispossessed neighborhoods; second, the institutions entrusted with supervising them are not market operators but elements of the bureaucratic field as characterized by Pierre Bourdieu. Post-custodial supervision is a ceremonial component of “prisonfare,” which complements “workfare” through organizational isomorphism, and partakes of the neoliberal reengineering of the state. Reentry outfits are not an antidote to but an extension of punitive containment as government technique for managing problem categories and territories in the dualizing city. To capture the glaring economic irrationality and bureaucratic absurdities of the oversight of felons behind as well as beyond bars, our theoretical inspiration should come not from the radical critique of capitalism but from the neo-Durkheimian sociology of organization and the neo-Weberian theory of the state as a classifying and stratifying agency.

A Neo-Weberian Theory of the Firm

The field of organization studies harbors two types of theory of the firm: ‘why’ and ‘how’ theories. The former seeks to explain why firms exist despite the availability of institutional alternatives, whereas the latter explores how firms meaningfully connect the actions of many interdependently operating individuals to collective outcomes. Since the two approaches are complements rather than substitutes, the field would benefit from the development of a parsimonious theory that integrates ‘why’ and ‘how’ perspectives. It is argued that Max Weber’s writings on bureaucracy, and especially his focus on the organization as a collective actor governed by rational-legal decision rules, provide a meaningful conceptual background structure for such a theory. Specifically, through a rational reconstruction of certain elements of the Weberian legacy, a neo-Weberian theory of the firm is constructed here that simultaneously provides reasons for the existence of the firm and explores the nature of cooperation within the firm itself.

The Globalisation of Positional Competition?

Positional competition for credentials and jobs has been a major focus of sociological inquiry. However, there has been little attempt to examine the impact of economic globalisation on competition for a livelihood. This is an important question for sociological analysis as centre-left Modernisers, including New Labour in Britain and the Democrats in the United States, assume that globalisation has transformed the nature of positional class conflict. They argue that it is now the absolute standards of educational achievement, rather than the relative standing of credential holders within local or national labour markets, which are of primary importance. Drawing on neo-Weberian theories of social closure, this article will argue that the Modernisers' description of the global labour market and its impact on positional class conflict is seriously flawed. It will also be argued that existing theories of social closure are inadequate and need to be developed in terms of what we call Positional Conflict Theory.

Class in Twentieth-Century American Sociology: An Analysis of Theories and Measurement Strategies.

Preface Introduction The Study of Class in American Sociology The Analysis of Class Inequality in Early American Sociology The Emergence of Functionalist Theories of Class Inequality Early Functionalism: Social Anthropological Analyses of Class Inequality in American Community Life The Functionalist Perspective on Class Inequality Applying the Functionalist Perspective on Class Inequality in Social Science Research The Emergence of Conflict Theories of Class Inequality Neo-Weberian Theories of Class Inequality Neo-Marxist Perspectives on Class Inequality Summary and Conclusions Index

Du Pont-State Relations

This paper examines the historical relations between the Du Pont Company and the U.S. federal government. Relations between the Du Pont Company and various segments of the state apparatus were varied and complex. I indicate how these historically contingent relations were affected by the strategies of capital accumulation adopted by the firm, the immediate organizational interests of the State, and the nature of class conflict in the society as a whole. These factors represent a combination of principles derived from neo-Marxian and neoWeberian theories of political economy. Corporations and governments are the most powerful organizations in advanced capitalist societies. Decisions regarding the most crucial issues that confront society as a whole are largely made within the context of these spheres of influence. Despite the importance of corporate and governmental organizations, relatively few theoretically-informed analyses regarding the specific content of relations between them exist in the literature. Most analyses of corporate-state relations begin at the institutional level of analysis and generalize to the level of the organization. As a result, these analyses tend to rely on rather sweeping, impressionistic, and often anecdotal evidence. What is required is a more detailed understanding of how specific relations are created, modified, and sustained over time. In this paper, I examine the historical interplay of relations between the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Company and the U.S. federal government.' The purpose of this paper is to identify the most historically significant aspects of these relations. First, I give a brief overview of the position of the Du Pont Company in the U.S. economy as a whole. Next, I describe the key factors which have influenced the development of Du Pont-state relationships. I then present a narrative summary of the history of these relations. Finally, I discuss these findings in light of more general theories of political economy.

The Role of the State in Urban Development: The Case of Houston, Texas

Theories dealing with the role of the state in cities vary considerably in emphasis, from traditional political matters to neo-Marxist and neo-Weberian theories accenting a broader political-economic context in analyzing the role of government in cities. This diversity of urban theories poses significant theoretical and analytical challenges, The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of government in Houston, the most extreme case of a major city which has been developed according to an accentuated ‘free market’ philosophy, in order (1) to provide empirical evidence on the complexity of the state role in supporting urban growth in the Houston metropolis; and (2) to provide additional theoretical insight into the role of the state in the city.