An Ontological Turn in Categories Research: From Standards of Legitimacy to Evidence of Actuality

In this Counterpoint to Durand and Paolella, we argue that prior work on categories has neglected processes of category emergence and dissolution. In response, we call for studies of categories that focus on how they emerge and fall out of use and on what they come to mean. We call this an ontological turn in categories research because systems of categorization and their associated meanings capture and reflect what societies view as social realities, or ontologies. As a guide to this broad topic, we develop a framework that relates the effects of categories to the familiarity of (1) occasions and motivations for their usage and (2) meanings and ontologies they carry, and we use this framework to elaborate two paths by which previously unfamiliar categories become accepted as elements of common knowledge. These paths jointly inform the recognition front of the emergence question, an understudied problem in organization studies. Finally, we outline two methodologies – set theoretic analysis and network‐based analysis – that offer particular promise for analysing processes of category emergence and dissolution.     

The Social Ontology of Virtual Environments

This paper analyzes the ontological structure of institutional and other social entities in virtual environments. The emphasis is on institutional reality, which consists of entities (objects, events, etc.) like money, contracts, and chess pieces, which are constituted in part through collective agreements. It is studied how institutional entities are constructed in virtual environments, how they relate to institutional entities in the real world, and how they are recognized by users.     

Professional Competence as Ways of Being: An Existential Ontological Perspective

Current theories propose that professional competence is primarily constituted by scientific and tacit knowledge, knowing-in-action, understanding of work or practice. While providing valuable insights we contend that they present a fragmented understanding of professional competence. In particular, they do not adequately explain how central aspects of practice such as knowledge and understanding are integrated into a specific professional competence in work performance. An existential ontological perspective is proposed as offering a more comprehensive and integrative analysis of professional competence. It is explored through an empirical study of corporate lawyers and the findings suggest that professional competence should be understood as ways of being. The results show that different ways of practising corporate law distinguish and integrate a specific understanding of work, a particular self-understanding, other people, and tools into distinct forms of competence in corporate law.     

地理信息数据模型

地理信息数据模型是描述数据组织和进行数据库设计的理论基础,它反映了现实世界中空间实体之间的相互关系,是地理信息数据处理的核心问题。     

Categories,Identities, and Cultural Classification: Moving Beyond a Model of Categorical Constraint

Categorization processes have gained currency in organizational theory. Categories are endemic to organizations and markets, serving as touchstones for organizational identity claims and for audience attention, legitimation, and valuation. Durand and Paolella argue for an expansion of current perspectives on categories, particularly that of prototype theory. Although we agree in spirit, we advocate an expansion of their perspective, which seems to focus primarily on the cognitive aspects of categorization and the force of their constraint, particularly at the individual level of analysis. We suggest three revisions to Durand and Paolella's arguments in order to extend the conversation. First, we advocate that categorization processes might usefully be understood by socio‐cultural perspectives that explicitly consider the role of audiences and the embeddedness of categories in wider classification systems. Second, we connect categorization processes to identity formation and maintenance at the levels of both the organization and the market. Third, we move beyond the constraining power of categories to consider their generative capabilities in processes of emergence and change. Overall, we discuss these in the context of organizational identities and cultural classification systems.     

A Monte Carlo permutation test for co-occurrence data

Researchers commonly use co-occurrence counts to assess the similarity of objects. This paper illustrates how traditional association measures can lead to misguided significance tests of co-occurrence in settings where the usual multinomial sampling assumptions do not hold. I propose a Monte Carlo permutation test that preserves the original distributions of the co-occurrence data. I illustrate the test on a dataset of organizational categorization, in which I investigate the relations between organizational categories (such as “Argentine restaurants” and “Steakhouses”).     

Effects of compound messages on global characteristics of Galileo spaces

The present article investigates the effect of messages compounded of many assertions on the overall size of a Galileo space. A Galileo space is a space within which objects and attributes are arrayed in such a way that the differences in meaning between any two objects in the space is given by the distances between those objects. Thus attributes that seem to be similar are located close to each other, and objects which are seen to embody a given attribute are located close to that attributes. Similarly, objects thought to be similar to each other are located close to each other. Results show that, following approximately a ten hour latency period, the space shows a substantial increase in size, followed by a return to its original dimensions. There is some indication that the expansion of the space may be periodic, which gives rise to the possibility that human beliefs and attitudes may be modelled as a damped oscillating system. Should this be the case, human cognitive processes, such as attitude and belief changes, might be modelled by the equations for dampled oscillations.     

Slumdog cities: rethinking subaltern urbanism

This article is an intervention in the epistemologies and methodologies of urban studies. It seeks to understand and transform the ways in which the cities of the global South are studied and represented in urban research, and to some extent in popular discourse. As such, the article is primarily concerned with a formation of ideas - "subaltern urbanism" - which undertakes the theorization of the megacity and its subaltern spaces and subaltern classes. Of these, the ubiquitous ‘slum’ is the most prominent. Writing against apocalyptic and dystopian narratives of the slum, subaltern urbanism provides accounts of the slum as a terrain of habitation, livelihood, self-organization and politics. This is a vital and even radical challenge to dominant narratives of the megacity. However, this article is concerned with the limits of and alternatives to subaltern urbanism. It thus highlights emergent analytical strategies, utilizing theoretical categories that transcend the familiar metonyms of underdevelopment such as the megacity, the slum, mass politics and the habitus of the dispossessed. Instead, four categories are discussed — peripheries, urban informality, zones of exception and gray spaces. Informed by the urbanism of the global South, these categories break with ontological and topological understandings of subaltern subjects and subaltern spaces.     

Beyond Prototypes: Drivers of Market Categorization in Functional Foods and Nanotechnology

We develop a nuanced understanding of what drives producers’ and audiences’ categorization activities throughout market category development. Prior research on market categories assumes prototypical similarity to be the main or even only driver of categorization. Drawing on a comparative, longitudinal case study of the market categories ‘functional foods’ and ‘nanotechnology’ in Finland, we find that evolving perceptions, knowledge, and goals also impact categorization. Furthermore, our analysis uncovers that goal‐based categorization is characteristic for vital market categories, and the lack thereof may mark a waning interest and category decline. Overall, while previous research stresses the role of clear boundaries and knowledge bases for a viable category, we find that overly strict boundaries may constrain category vitality and renewal.     

衍生金融工具会计确认问题的探讨

二十世纪七十年代后,随着布雷顿森林体系瓦解、金融自由化等对世界经济的强烈冲击,国际金融市场上的风险开始急剧增加。为了规避和分散风险,衍生金融工具应运而生并得到了迅猛的发展。与此同时,也对传统会计理论提出了新的挑战。能否及时、准确地反映出衍生金融工具所蕴含的价值和风险更显得尤为重要。为此,许多会计组织都对传统会计理论进行了改革,以使会计信息更能符合决策者的要求。本文拟对衍生金融工具会计处理中的确认问题进行探讨。     

试论企业互动是一个经济场

企业互动是人们经济生活空间中庞杂而完整的相互作用场，由其对象、条件、内容、方式、类别、结果等种种要素所构成。本文对企业互动经济场的质量、能量和动量作了初步探计，指出企业产品所含社会文明的先进程度及其在社会文明中所占的位置是企业互动经济场中质量的第一要义。同时．对企业互动经济场的基本特性和意义也进行了简要论述。     

EXPERTISE AND PROBLEM CATEGORIZATION: THE ROLE OF EXPERT PROCESSING IN ORGANIZATIONAL SENSE-MAKING

Our purpose is to understand more fully the role of managerial cognition in organizations. As such, we adopted an experimental approach in studying the use of expert processing in the categorization of organizational problems. We compared the problem categories of 38 chief executive officers (CEOs) in the machine tool industry (experts) with those of 30 MBA students (novices). The results of a problem sorting task indicated that experts tended to categorize the ill-structured problems significantly faster than novices. Experts also had greater variance in the number of categories used and they incorporated more problem information. Follow-up analyses revealed that the number of categories was negatively related to experts’age and positively related to the number of processes and services offered by their respective organizations. These findings are consistent with the contention that experts rely on well-developed, context-dependent heuristics in the early stages of their decision-making. It is argued that such heuristics allow organizational experts to make sense of strategic issues quickly, and respond in an efficient and effective manner.     

The Methodology of Austrian Economics and Its Relevance to Institutionalism

A bstract . The methodology of Austrian economics's presented in the writings of Ludwig von Mises is described. The Misesian system is built on a priori categories (choice, causality, teleology, time, uncertainty) which Mises regarded as common to all human actors. He used these categories to describe how theories of social phenomena must be constructed if they are to be comprehensible to others. To interpret history , including economic history , one must invent models based on subsidiary assumptions and he or she must make bypotheseszbom the specific "intentions and expectations" of actors. One model is that of an "economic institution." The meaning of the Misesian model of an institution is stated. It is said to have much in common with the models of phenomenologicai sociology. Finally, contrary to recent papers in this J ournal , it is argued that (1) Misesian a priori categories are not alternatives to a priori assumptions described by institutionalists, (2) although a pure theory of choice does not lend itself to the evaluation of public policy , hypotheses about specific intentions and expectations do permit such evaluations, and (3) statements by Mises on institutions and the study of history resemble those made by many institutionalists.     

论现代大学形象的基本标志

进入新世纪以来，中国有许多大学提出了要打造世界一流大学的雄伟目标，并在学校形象塑造上不遗余力。但中国目前最紧迫的任务不是打造一、二所世界一流大学，更重要的是建设和拥有一大批现代大学，现代大学的形象塑造是一个系统工程，文章指出：一座现代大学必须努力确立一个极具创意的理念，构建一种能让名师辈出的机制，装备了先进的教学和科研设施，拥有优秀的在校生和杰出的校友，并最终成为国际文化和科技交流的中心，这些是一所现代大学良好形象体系必须具备的基本要素，如果中国有一大批大学能在自己形象的旗帜上清晰打上了这些标志性要素的烙印，也许，中国世界一流的现代大学离真正地诞生就不远了。     

A framework for analysing social sequences

Longitudinal categorical data arise in many diverse areas of the social sciences and methods for its analysis have taken two broad directions. Heuristically, one can attempt to model the state space (i.e., the categories) or the sequence space (i.e., the subjects), typically with event history models or optimal matching respectively. This study proposes a more general framework for inference from such data which acknowledges not only the analytic approach (split into stochastic models and algorithmic differencing) but also hypothesis, sequences, categorisation and representation. The individual sequence can be thought of as a map from time to the state space. The hypothesis relates to how these maps are similar and how they deviate from this structure. The analytical frameworks define what is assumed, what is uncertain, and how this is modelled. The categories of the state variable define what is considered pivotal as an event. Representations create explorative tools and describe structure, as well as communicating high dimensional inferences. It is the interaction between these ideas which is fundamental to making inferences, as well as their relationship to time, which is essential to the social science treatment of sequences. Thus, the analysis should not prefer one approach to analysis over another but appreciate the origin of the data and the theory under examination.     

The Negotiation of Purpose in Multi-Organizational Collaborative Groups

The negotiation and agreement of goals for collaborations between public and non-profit organizations is argued to be a complex and painful process. Thus, the research described in this paper used action research to explore some of the critical behaviours in such groups. Based on the two units of analysis of 'goal ownership' and 'episodes in negotiation', a categorization of types of multi-organizational group negotiation behaviour is developed. The categories are intended to be of practical use to those seeking to ensure the success of a collaboration.     

At the bottom of a global commodity chain––how different really are hourly wage rates and piece rates?

Employers have a number of different ways in which they can pay their employees. Discussions of the forms of wage payment were once very fashionable and they still remain important in terms of practice, but in theoretical terms, they have disappeared from the radar and been less central to recent analysis of work. On the surface, without any theoretical analysis and primarily empirical evidence, it appears that there is a major difference between ‘time wage’ rate and ‘piece wage’ rate. This article via Marxist theoretical analysis and primarily empirical evidence from Australian, New Zealand, Chinese and Fiji garment firms argued that there is a high level of similarity between time rate and piece rate. The empirical research findings of the Fiji garment industry shows that a time rate is not really much different from a piece rate, and in fact, a time rate is a disguised form of piece rate because workers are required to meet their targets per hour via very close monitoring of output and performance. The article further argued that there exist greater work intensification and exploitation via strict management control systems such as close supervision and punitive factory rules. The article also highlighted some of the limitations of existing social science theories because they can not account for what is going on garment firms in Fiji (especially Chinese firms). The article argues that we must either expand the earlier social science theories or move beyond and developed new theories to fully capture the new emerging trends of contemporary capitalist global production system.     

Category Stretching: Reorienting Research on Categories in Strategy,Entrepreneurship, and Organization Theory

We advocate for more tolerance in the manner we collectively address categories and categorization in our research. Drawing on the prototype view, organizational scholars have provided a ‘disciplining’ framework to explain how category membership shapes, impacts, and limits organizational success. By stretching the existing straightjacket of scholarship on categories, we point to other useful conceptualizations of categories – i.e. the causal‐model and the goal‐based approaches of categorization – and propose that depending on situational circumstances, and beyond a disciplining exercise, categories involve a cognitive test of congruence and a goal satisfying calculus. Unsettling the current consensus about categorical imperatives and market discipline, we suggest also that audiences may tolerate more often than previously thought organizations that blend, span, and stretch categories. We derive implications for research about multi‐category membership and mediation in markets, and suggest ways in which work on the theme of categories in the strategy, entrepreneurship, and managerial cognition literatures can be enriched.     

Insurgent Building: Emerging Spatial Politics in the Bedouin–State Conflict in Israel

In the conflict between Bedouin representatives and government authorities in the southern Israeli Negev, the term ‘insurgent building’ refers to the construction of buildings erected in the full expectation that they will be demolished by the Israeli police shortly thereafter. This article analyses how insurgent building is employed as a spatial practice by emerging political actors to claim contested Bedouin landownership. Importantly, insurgent building relies on the ability of media and advocacy organizations to mobilize behind the issue. Most of the relevant scholarship takes the interpretative categories advanced by these actors at face value. Following anthropological debates regarding objectification and categorization, I examine the context of a specific case of insurgent building. Emerging political actors who employ insurgent building often rely on predefined ethnic categories and clear‐cut people–state polarities. This case demonstrates the need for a more differentiated understanding of multilayered local dynamics than the one offered by mainstream linear interpretations. At a more abstract level, political actors contribute to the reproduction of the very categories against which they mobilize.