Wendell Bell and the sociology of the future: Challenges past, present and future

As a sociologist dealing with futures studies, Wendell Bell encountered considerable obstacles because his topic - the future, imagined, projected and shaped - poses significant problems for contemporary sociology. The paper discusses Bell's engagement with these disciplinary difficulties and his search for conceptual and methodological solutions. The paper anchors Bell's achievements in a wider historical context, identifies some of the new challenges facing sociology and considers some openings for change in our knowledge practice.     

School, images of the futures and social processes in classrooms

Futures studies express a deep concern for the negative effect school education has on young people's images of the future and their proactive attitude to the future. Here, images are regarded as cultural maps and the article attempts to outline a model of interaction in the classroom, which may be useful for understanding how school practices affect images.Given the cultural perspective on images, the analysis focuses on the social processes that organise the creation, negotiation, and distribution of cultural inventories in the classroom, including the meanings and meaningful expressions about future.

Whenever a culture is understood to be a collective phenomenon, it needs a sociology. When this sociology is left implicit, the danger is greater than it is a weak sociology.Ulf Hannerz

     

Evidence and Argument: Another look at Audit Fundamentals

Traditionally, accounts of fundamental audit theory have been based on a “common sense" epistemological framework, incorporating a correspondence theory of truth and a “naı̈ve empirical" approach to discovery and demonstration. Although these accounts generally fail to link this theory convincingly to audit practice, most writers on technical audit processes have assumed (usually implicitly) that no practical problems arise as a result of this. This disengagement between epistemological grounding and day-to-day practice is mirrored in some current writing, which takes its inspiration from the sociology of knowledge. This writing, also, fails to (and indeed cannot) engage in a discourse with practitioners on fundamental theory since it conceives the practitioner’s rationality as constructed, and, therefore, contingent. This paper attempts to set out an approach to fundamental theory, aimed at avoiding the errors of the early theorists; preserving the insights gained from the sociology of knowledge, without coming to grief on its self-referential difficulties; and suggesting a route towards reconciling practice with conceptual basics.     

Sobre la alienación subjetiva en la organización del trabajo actual. Una observación participante en el comercio de la alimentación al detal

This paper presents the findings of the first stage of a case study of pleasure and suffering at work, whose fieldwork is one participant observation of a Canadian chain of retail. The purpose is to make available to students of organizational analysis, management and human resources, some definitions are finding from some bibliography resources (theoretical and methodological) from clinical sociology, the psychodynamics of work and sociology of emotions. Is about the dimensions social and technical of the work organization and one form of current subjective alienation. The most important premises that can be shows is that the current organization of work tent to be perceives by the employee like a potential threat and, unknowing, they prefers to protect themselves from the subjective alienation.     

The moral regulation of markets: Professions, privatization and the english insolvency act 1986

Both economists and sociologists in the last two decades have pointed to the variety of ways that markets require normative foundations and legitimation. In order to understand better how market morality is constructed through law, this paper examines how Mrs Thatcher's Conservative Government used the 1986 Insolvency Act to produce a reconstruction of market behavior. First, it championed privatization in the administration of bankruptcy and in corporate liquidation and reorganization. To do so required a clean-up of the “unacceptable face of capitalism.” It used the insolvency reforms to develop a moral code that distinguished among three types of commercial behavior — mistakes, recklessness, and criminal activity. Second, the Act attempted to “professionalize” some elements of business practice. It did so by developing codes that exposed reckless and criminal company directors to civil actions with strong punitive sanctions, including personal liability and disqualification from management. And third, the legislation created a new occupational monopoly of insolvency practitioners, which was charged with the monitoring of directors' behavior, and reporting recklesssness and the appearance of criminality to government enforcement agencies. The paper concludes that Mrs Thatcher's Government used the ideals and actuality of professionalization as an instrument to define and improve both market morality and efficiency. This linkage between professionalization and market rejuvenation further demonstrates how states may use professions as agents of economic surveillance and enforcers of commercial morality. It raises questions about the conditions under which states will exert their enormous leverage over licensing to compel professions to act as moral agents on the state's behalf.     

25 Years of Giddens in accounting research: Achievements, limitations and the future

Twenty five years ago, Giddens’ structuration theory (ST) was introduced into accounting research as a reaction to the history-less, apolitical and technical-efficiency focus of traditional functionalist research. A quarter of a century later, this growing stream of research consists of some 65 published papers and has become one of the dominant alternative approaches used to explore accounting as an organizational and social practice. We review this literature based on the following two research questions; (i) what are the major achievements of this literature, and in what respects has it contributed to our understanding of accounting in relation to other alternative streams of accounting research, such as those grounded in critical theory, actor-network theory (ANT), new-institutional sociology (NIS) and practice theory? and; (ii) what are the limitations of the ST strand and, considering these (and its relative strengths), how should it be advanced in the future? Overall, we find that the mobilization of ST as a general ontological framework has generated three major and largely unique contributions, namely; (i) the introduction of a duality perspective; (ii) the conceptualization of accounting as an interwoven totality comprised of structures of signification, domination and legitimation, and; (iii) an ontological basis for theorizing how, when and why socially embedded agents may produce both continuity and change in accounting practices. However, we also conclude that it is difficult to identify a particular and distinctive empirical imprint of the ST literature, and that some of the theory’s ‘competitive advantages’ are far from fully exploited. Based on these identified strengths and weaknesses of the ST perspective, we consider an array of directions for future scholarly effort.     

Re-thinking the future of work: Beyond binary hierarchies

How will work be organised in the future? This paper reveals that although there are multiple stories about the future of work, a similar storyline is adopted across many of the competing visions. Most visions firstly squeeze all forms of work into one side or the other or some dichotomy and then proceed to temporally and/or normatively sequence the two sides of the dualism and finally label the resultant one-dimensional and linear trajectory as some -ism, -ation or post-something-or-other. This paper evaluates critically such hierarchical binary narratives (e.g., the shift from informal to formal work, non-commodified to commodified work, localisation to globalisation, Fordism to post-Fordism, bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy) and displays how these dominant narratives, as well as the counter narratives that simply invert the temporal and/or hierarchical sequencing of these dichotomies, over-simplify lived practice. The paper concludes by offering a way forward that transcends these one-dimensional linear tales and recognises the heterogeneous and multiple directions of work in order to provide a more kaleidoscope-like understanding of the direction of work and open up the future of work to new possibilities.     

Sociology,risk and the environment: a material-semiotic approach

Abstract

Sociology has made significant contributions to the conceptualisation of risk and critique of technical risk analysis. It has, however, unintentionally reinforced the division of labour between the natural/technical and social sciences in risk analysis. This paper argues that the problem with conceptualisations of risk is not a misplaced emphasis on calculation. Rather, it is that we have not adequately dealt with ontological distinctions implicit in both sociological and technical work on risk between material or objective risks and our socially mediated understandings and interpretations of those risks. While acknowledging that risks are simultaneously social and technical, sociologists have not, in practice, provided the conceptual and methodological tools to apprehend risk in a less dualistic manner. This limits our ability both to analyse actors and processes outside the social domain and to explore the recursive relationships between risk calculus, social action and the material outcomes of risk. In response, this paper develops a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk and provides an assessment of its relevance to more sociologically informed risk governance. It introduces the ideas of co-constitution, emergent entities and enactment as instruments for reconciling the material and social worlds in a sociological study of risk. It further illustrates the application of a material-semiotic approach using these concepts in the nuclear industry. In deconstructing social–material dualisms in the sociology of risk, this paper argues that a material-semiotic conceptualisation of risk enables both technical and social perspectives on risk not only to coexist but to collaborate, widening the scope for interdisciplinary research.     

Degrowth,the past,the future,and the human nature

In the last years, different sources point to a same message: industrial civilization has entered an overshoot mode, the natural limits to growth have been already surpassed. This frontier does not wait for us in the future; it already belongs to our past. If population and the economy are truly beyond the limits, then current visions and theories of social change would be deeply perturbed. If the development era is approaching its end, then many sociological theories on current societies will share the same destiny, sustainable development doctrines between them. It is worth to examine theories that explicitly look at the social world this way or that – at least – are not incompatible with it. Differences between these theories depend on sociological, psychological and anthropological questions; or, in other words, they depend on the human nature. Exploring the relationship between degrowth and the human nature gives rise to debates about selective pressures under conditions of scarcity (human evolution), historical and anthropological evidence, philosophy, and sociology (institutional resilience, utopies as whole society experiments…). As its conclusion, the argument accepts that an evolutionary perspective supports that there are some potentials for conscious social change even in a way-down era, but it does not justify the belief in a particular only line of history. This conclusion does not satisfy the desire of knowing the future; nevertheless it may be the only one possible. The future is not written. Neither in history nor in evolution; not even in the mixture of history and evolution that conforms us as inhabitants of the Earth.     

A practitioner’s view of the future of futures studies

This article looks at the future of futures studies (FS) over the next 20 years from a practitioner’s viewpoint. It begins with favorable developments for FS in the organizational context. The main body covers how FS can take advantage of these more favorable developments. It then anticipates some key methodological and professional challenges and how FS might meet them. It concludes with a few comments about the prospects for a self-actualized FS.The single biggest challenge for FS over the next generation from my practitioner’s point-of-view is to get beyond the cyclicality of interest in the future and get FS firmly integrated into the organizational context. Our experience to date convinces me that we have earned “the right to practice,” and we must now focus the next few decades on sinking roots “inside”. The good news is that there are several developments suggesting that this is not just a preferable but also a probable future.     

Does information drive trading in option strategies?

We study trading in option strategies in the FTSE-100 index market. Trades in option strategies represent around 37% of the total number of trades and over 75% of the total trading volume in our sample. We find some evidence that order flow in volatility–sensitive option strategies contains information about future realized volatility. We do not find evidence that order flow in directionally–sensitive option strategies contains information about future returns. Overall, our evidence suggests that option strategies are used both by traders who possess non-public information about future volatility and by uninformed speculators who appear to follow unprofitable trend chasing strategies.     

Learning in Public Organizations in 2010

The theme of this article is the future of learning in public organizations. It outlines a way of thinking that might underpin learning, and argues that, by the year 2010, public organizations could develop a radical approach to organizational learning that would make the concept more meaningful in their everyday practice. This approach is based on various shifts in the ways in which management is thought about and enacted. These changes are a movement away from the idea of 'the public manager' to a more relational notion: 'management in public'. The author explains what 'management in public' means, and discusses how it can be put into practice in order to transform learning in public organizations.     

Future roles of business in society: the expanding boundaries of corporate responsibility and a compelling case for partnership

The roles and responsibilities of business in society, in particular global business, are being defined more broadly by an expanding range of stakeholders. This paper aims to review these changes and their implications in order to understand better the likely future expectations of business in society and the way in which leading companies are setting new standards of responsible business practice. It begins by tracing trends within corporate social responsibility debates, and then draws on empirical research and observed stakeholder demands of business, to argue that the boundaries of corporate responsibility are advancing both internally and externally.Internally, these boundaries are changing in terms of the increased responsibility of corporations towards their direct and indirect internal stakeholders. This is shown through innovations in business practice to achieve enhanced social justice in the workplace, improved governance, and more accurate disclosure of non-financial risk. This paper provides a context for this discussion by examining emerging international law, guidelines and voluntary initiatives, regulatory frameworks, and risk review procedures that increasingly seek to redefine corporate responsibility by establishing new norms of best practice and behaviour. These boundaries are also expanding externally, as society increasingly expects global business to work with others to provide solutions to humanitarian crises and endemic problems facing the world. This paper explores how some companies are doing this by applying core competencies in ways that integrate social development and business goals. It suggests, in turn, that the challenges of these expanding boundaries of responsibilities are best addressed through strategic partnerships.This paper concludes that there are new multi-stakeholder convened global governance frameworks evolving that are encouraging businesses of the future to re-invent themselves as a ‘force for positive good’ in society. This involves going beyond the paradigm of simply ‘doing no harm’, and way beyond previous expectations of business as being only about shareholder value. This prediction is supported by examples drawn from the practice of global companies that are already innovating to fulfil this wider role.     

The worried, the competitive and the indifferent—Approaches to the future in youth, their structural roots and outcomes in adult life

The article brings together knowledge from future studies, sociology, psychology and social medicine in a study of approaches to the future in youth, their structural roots and outcomes in adult life. Three different approaches are studied: worry, indifference and competitiveness and by use of unique longitudinal data individuals are followed from childhood to middle age. Worry and indifference about the future is positively linked to economic hardship and social problems in the family of origin. Indifference towards the future in adolescence is also related to adverse adult living conditions, such as economic hardship and low educational attainment. A competitive outlook of the future finally, is not linked to living conditions in childhood, but shows a strong and positive relationship to mortality risk up to age 48. Although the mechanism behind this relationship cannot be determined by the present study, type-A-personality is suggested as factor of possible relevance. The study demonstrates how social factors forming young individuals’ life chances also impact the future outlooks of these individuals, and how these outlooks in their turn independently affect adult living conditions.     

The effects of audit technology on auditor efficiency: Auditing and the timeliness of client earnings announcements

The organizational theory and sociology literatures have long been concerned with the concept of structure, both as a dependent and an independent variable. Relatively recently, auditing researchers have found that public accounting firms differ in the degree of structure their audit technologies exhibit, and that the voting pattern of the Auditing Standards Board appears to be influenced by its members' firm affiliations with respect to their structure orientation. To date, however, the influence of accounting firm structure on client financial reporting characteristics has not been to subjected study.The purpose of this article is to examine hypothesized relationships between the structure orientation of public accounting firms and client earnings announcement dates, expressed in terms of “early” vs “late”. In addition, the impact of the nature of information conveyed, expressed in terms of surprise “good news” or “bad news”, is studied. Empirical evidence drawn from the Wall Street Journal Index, COMPUSTAT and a prior classification of Big Eight firm audit technologies with respect to structure, suggests that systematic relationships do exist. Implications for future research and audit practice are discussed.     

Risk and the cosmopolitanization of solidarities

Abstract

For classical sociologists, national solidarity was a response to the risks and uncertainties of modernity. National solidarity was said to provide the foundations for social order and justice (Durkheim), serve as the basis for political legitimacy (Weber), and address issues of (in)equality (Marx). Throughout the twentieth century, national solidarity seemed to perform these functions adequately, if often at the expense of those not belonging to the national community. However, with the demise of progress as a cultural prophylaxis to contain the future, it is often said that newly emergent world risks spell the end of solidarity. On this view, risk, individualization, and the cosmopolitanization of life worlds are contributing to the fragmentation of societies and pushing solidarity toward expiration. Yet, this jeremiad is based on an anachronistic notion of solidarity, which does not account for the recent adaptations of nationhood. In contrast, I argue that new global risks are not detrimental to the notion of solidarity but rather serve as a precondition for the emergence of cosmopolitanized solidarities. Global culture and political norms from human rights to environmentalism have catalyzed a reimagining of nationhood itself. In order to grasp new forms of solidarity which buttress this reimagined nationhood, I draw on Ulrich Beck’s distinction between three historically specific iterations of the concept of risk, as something that: can be calculated; is malign and incalculable; has the potential to generate goods.     

Integrating futures studies with organizational development: Design options for the scenario project ‘RWS2020’

Most futures studies are not used by managers and strategists and do not influence the direction of organizational development. Although the contribution of future studies to management is in theory all but self-evident, the practice in organizations is that futures knowledge is hardly used, or at most, is used selectively and strategically (‘politically’). This article acknowledges that gap and claims that it is a fundamental divide between to very different domains. However, out of that re-conceptualization of the relation between futures studies and management, a new direction for an integrated praxis arises. In an empirical case study, we show that by means of an intelligent process-design and professional balancing of several key-dilemmas, futures studies can be connected to management processes and organizational development. The future can be brought back into the everyday practice of management. However, in order to do so, the futures field needs to set aside some of its methodological claims and move towards the field of strategic management. Not because futurists need to abandon their specific knowledge and expertise, but to make the most of it.     

The sociologist as social architect: A new task for macro-sociology?

The theme of voluntarism and determinism is revisited, here in the context of forecasting for futurists. Although fraught with danger the use of scenarios is vital in a world of rapid change, in which people are more than ever aware of the choices open to them and the ways they are able to determine their own future. The author proposes that a merger between the approaches of the sociologist and the futurist could aid our understanding of social futures. The outcome is a ‘design sociology’ based on six key concepts.