SOC300H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Solitary Confinement, Profit Motive, Normal Accidents
Document Summary
Mundane sparks, tight coupling, complexity, incomprehensibility: small things lead to big problems because the organizations are s complex and everything is connected. Rather than blaming individuals for immoral decision, look to the organizational context; its culture, structure, routines. E. g. acceptability of risk, structural secrecy, initial responses. Riots don"t only or necessarily happen in the worst conditions, they happen in normal prisons. Social structures created by individuals to support the collaborative pursuit of specified goals. Ubiquitous in modern societies: organizations are everywhere. What collectivity"s are not organizations: primary groups, families, communities, social movements. The society of organizations: large organizations have absorbed society, organizations are a surrogate of society. Many services/ activites were once performed by: family, neighbourhood, local government, churches, voluntary services, small businesses, peers. Now performed by large, formal organizations. Transition occurs in late 19th century into 20th century. People no longer lived in their own homes, they would live together in these almshouses and workhouses.
