SOCI 1005 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Institutional Racism, Misgivings, Routine Activity Theory
13 Sep 2018
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SOCI LECT 6
PART ONE SOCIAL COLLECTIVITIES: NETWORKS, GROUPS, BUREAUCRACIES, SOCITIES
• Research shows that only a few social ties separate us from everyone else
Networks
• a social network is a set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material or
emotional resources. Patterns of exchange determine the boundaries of a network.
Social networks may be formal or informal. To what social networks do you belong?
• social networks – in the traditional meaning of the word – do not tend to have a
membership list, a sense of group identity, or shared goals
• social networks include urban networks e.g. ties among and between communities
members within metropolitan cities and urban centres and online networks e.g. ties via
cell phone and Internet connections
Groups
• a social group is composed of one or more networks of people who identify with one
another and adhere to defined norms, roles, and statuses (Brym et al 2015: 146)
• teams, gangs, and bands frequently follow systemic small group processes such as
divisions of social purposes and motives e.g. three social roles/scripts emerging in small
group interactions observed in undergraduate students by Robert Bales in 1950: task
leader (set goals and organized work), emotional leader (cope with frustration and
conflict), and joker (ease tension)
• a social category is composed of people who share a similar status but do not identify
one another (Brym et al 2015: 146)
How do ‘good’ people become capable of doing bad things?
• to answer this complex question, a symbolic interactionist approach might suggest we
consider the influence of authority and institutional pressure on individual behaviour
e.g. Stanley Milgram’s 1974 obedience experiments: contemporary re-enactment of
Milgram's obedience experiment
How Groups and Organizations Influence Individual Behaviour
Why might working in an institutional environment (such as those frequently found in
government departments or other bureaucratic organizations) influence an individual worker’s
behavior?
Research into the functioning of bureaucracies has shown:
1)Norms of solidarity demand conformity.
2)Structures of authority tend to render people obedient.
3)Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority.
Group Structures Shaping Member Conduct and Activities
• primary groups: small, strong emotional ties between members
• secondary groups: larger, weak emotional ties between members
a reference group is composed of people in relation to whom an individual evaluates his or her
situation or conduct
formal organizations are secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives e.g.
bureaucratic institutions
Groups: Inclusion and Exclusion
• groupthink: in group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings
• in-group members are people who belong to a group whereas out-group members are
people are excluded from an in-group
• additionally. Some groups are dominant over other groups
Bystander Apathy
• “bystander apathy occurs when people observe someone in an emergency but offer no
help” (Brym et al 2015: 150) a.k.a. “the bystander effect”; research via social
experiments have shown that the larger the group or crowd, the less likely someone is
to respond; response patterned along social boundaries
Bureaucracies
• a bureaucracy is a large, impersonal organization (has a collective goal or purpose)
composed of many clearly defined positions arranged in a hierarchy; bureaucracies tend
to be formal i.e. deliberately planned
• a bureaucracy has a permanent, salaried staff of qualified experts and written goals,
rules, and procedures
• in an ideal bureaucracy (e.g. as envisioned by Max Weber), staff members always try to
find ways of running the bureaucracy more efficiently (Brym et al, 2015: 141)
Max Weber’s Seven Characteristics of Bureaucracies
Weber sought to observe the characteristics of bureaucracies as an “ideal type” (i.e. without
normative or prescriptive intent) or mode of organizing. He found seven essential elements:
1. division of labour
2. hierarchy of positions
3. formal system of rules
4. reliance on written documents
5. separation of the person from the office
6. hiring and promotion based on technical merit
7. protection of careers
Criticisms of Bureaucracy
In practice, bureaucracies also have an “informal” side, which may come with pros and cons…
Following are some popular criticisms of practices that may come with bureaucratic
organization.
• dehumanization: occurs when bureaucrats treat clients in impersonal terms, as standard
cases or mere categories, and personnel as cogs in a giant machine. This type of
treatment is proven to frustrate clients and lower worker morale.
• bureaucratic ritualism: involves bureaucrats becoming so preoccupied with rules and
regulations that they make it difficult for the organization to fulfill its goals Brym et al,
2015: 141 (a.k.a. getting caught up in “red tape”)
• bureaucratic inertia: “the tendency of large, rigid bureaucracies to continue their
policies even when their clients’ needs change” (Ibid)
• oligarchy: rule of the few. “All bureaucracies have a supposed tendency for power to
become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people at the top of the
organizational pyramid” (Ibid)
• Robert K. Merton (1957) observed that bureaucrats are often under pressure to act in a
way that is not in their or their organization’s long-term interests
-Not all bureaucratic environments are authoritarian, where the authority figures demand strict
compliance from their subordinates.
-Bureaucracies may also involve different types of leadership, or combinations of leadership
styles:
-laissez-faire: subordinates are left to work things out on their own with no direction from
above
democratic: group members/employees are involved in the decision-making process
Organizational Environments
• there exist “a host of economic, political, and cultural forces that lie outside an
organization and affect the way it works” (Brym et al 2015: 156)
Social Control and Obedience
• disciplinary systems and docile bodies: in the 1970s Michel Foucault described in a
number of works how power-knowledge relationships use coercion and surveillance to
exert direct, physical control in enforcing standards of behaviour (e.g. as found in
disciplinary systems such as prisons, schools, hospitals, and many bureaucratic
institutions)
• bio-power: a form of power described by Michel Foucault that falls outside of traditional
notions of political and social authority; where discipline exerts control over an
individual, bio-power exerts control over a population through government policies that
influence biological survival – namely sex, reproduction, health, and mortality
Document Summary
Part one social collectivities: networks, groups, bureaucracies, socities: research shows that only a few social ties separate us from everyone else. Networks: a social network is a set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material or emotional resources. Patterns of exchange determine the boundaries of a network. Research into the functioning of bureaucracies has shown: 2)structures of authority tend to render people obedient. Groups: inclusion and exclusion: groupthink: in group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings in-group members are people who belong to a group whereas out-group members are people are excluded from an in-group, additionally. Weber sought to observe the characteristics of bureau(cid:272)(cid:396)a(cid:272)ies as a(cid:374) (cid:862)ideal t(cid:455)pe(cid:863) (cid:894)i. e. (cid:449)ithout normative or prescriptive intent) or mode of organizing. He found seven essential elements: division of labour, hierarchy of positions, formal system of rules, reliance on written documents, separation of the person from the office, hiring and promotion based on technical merit, protection of careers.
