How Society Views Bureaucracy
In Enabling Creative Chaos: The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event by Katherine K. Chen (2009), the author offers an organizational model combining bureaucracy procedures with collectivist policies to readers. Chen analyzes the procedures and policies of the organizers behind the “Burning Man” festival’s creative chaos. Chen’s purpose in her book is to help society “reimagine organizations and their place in everyday life,” however, it remains unclear how the Burning Man organizational model relates to everyday lives in present society (Chen 22). Unlike Jason Corburn’s “street science” model used to study the potential causes of the asthma epidemic in Brooklyn, as explained in his book Street Science: Community Knowledge and Environmental Health Justice (2005), Chen’s model does not reflect on how the individual organizers and participants of the event have used the Burning Man’s organizational model to change other bureaucracies within which they are involved. Comparatively, Coburn’s framework for understanding “street science” – decision-making that draws on community knowledge and makes contributions to environmental justice – is the better model upon which society should view bureaucracy (Corburn 111-144.).
Corburn successfully articulates how a bureaucracy impeded by unnecessary procedures and red tape can develop an effective system of administration by using the street science process and how community knowledge can contribute to effective local action in the face of great scientific uncertainty both in the present and in the future.
Combined Bureaucratic and Collectivist Approach
Chen – an organizational sociologist who spent a decade doing ethnographic research with Burning Man organ...
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...ause at the time of Corburn’s study there was no such organized movement (Corburn 143).
Corburn argues that street science does not devalue science but revalues other information and democratizes the inquiry and decision making process.
Conclusion
Corburn effectively examines environmental health and justice by focusing on how community residents can help professionals detect health risks and collaborate with scientists to seek remediation and future prevention of health risk in their neighborhoods. Coburn’s street science method reflects on how the individual organizers and participants of the study can be used to change other bureaucracies within which they are involved. The street science is accumulated from local knowledge and uses local insights combined with scientific techniques to examine health risks in a community both in the present and in the future.
While discussing the unknown frontier that scientists must endure, Barry describes a “wilderness region” that is unfamiliar and new. He continues to say that scientists venture “through the looking glass” into a new frontier. These devices help to create familiar ideas that the audience will understand in an unfamiliar situation. A simile used to compare research to a “crystal” by explaining that “probing” was to “ precipitate an order out of chaos,” much like a crystalline structure forms an ordered structure. Finally, Berry implements a metaphor in order to describe what follows a discovery. He describes “a flood of colleagues” that “ pave roads over the path laid.” This metaphor describes how science continuously changes, one discovery after another while ultimately communicating the patience and curiosity a scientist must have. The culmination of these figurative devices teach a new way of an audience that is unfamiliar with the author's theme.
...om society. Although Bishop makes no excuses for the shortcomings of science and academia, he delivers an ominous message to those who would attack the scientific community: Science is the future. Learn to embrace it or be left behind.
Often, when the discussion of American bureaucracy is broached in conversation, those holding these conversations often think of the many men and women who operate behind the scenes within the government. This same cross section of Americans is looked upon as the real power within the federal government and unlike the other branches of government, has little to no oversight. A search of EBSCO resulted in the following definition, an organization “structure with a rigid hierarchy of personnel, regulated by set rules and procedures” (Bureaucracy, 2007). Max Weber believed that a bureaucracy was technically the most efficient form of organization, one structured around official functions that are bound by rules, each function having its own specified competence (2007). This wide ranging group of Americans has operated within the gaps, behind the scenes, all under the three core branches of government: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The division of government into three branches and separate powers gives each branch both exclusive powers and some additional power...
Shriver, Thomas, and Gary Webb. “Rethinking the Scope of Environmental Injustice: Perceptions of Health Hazards in Rural Native American Community Exposed to Carbon Black.” Rural Sociology 74.2 (2009): 270-292. EBSCO Host. Web. 12 December, 2009.
When asked how he feels about the advancement of science to places that were once notions to be the job of the creator, Dr. Martin Luther King replies by saying, “Cowardice asks is it safe? Expedience asks is it political? Vanity asks is it popular? But the conscience asks is it right?”
The Chernobyl meltdown was one the biggest meltdowns of the decade, the implications of Chernobyl didn’t just resonate in Russia, but the uranium contamination was found all across Europe. Sheep farmers from North Cumbria were affected by the radiation contamination. After the contamination, scientists came to help the farmers who were affected. Our presentation on the article also discussed the broader implications for the public understanding of science and how the deficit model failed in the article. The deficit model was used to discuss the problems with science and the lay people. The public’s negative attitude towards science is because of their ignorance towards it and the remedy was to dumb down the information to the lay people. This article discusses how both science and the lay people were misunderstanding each other. This was through miscommunication and standard view of the public understanding of science which lead to people to initially trust everything the scientists would say.
Ecological justice is the fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens. In class we discussed the Chicago Heat Wave of 1995, where more lives were lost to conditions that could have been prevented to a point. This occurred due to poor access to the health system, no air conditioning, and no assistance from public during this heat emergency. Public health agencies also rejected the help of volunteers. In the film we see some form of this aspect in a couple ways. One way this is seen in the film is that not many people in the neighborhood had air conditioning, although we do see many homes with fans in the windows. Another way this aspect is seen is a scene in the middle of the film where the younger kids and young adults open up a fire hydrant to cool off and have fun. Their attempt for relief from the heat was cut short when the police came by on patrol and shut off the water from the fire
For our group community assessment, we assessed the neighbourhood of Moss Park. Throughout our assessment at Moss Park, we noted many of the community’s characteristics including physical environment, resources available, strengths and weaknesses etc… Moss Park is a neighbourhood located in downtown Toronto, the area is mainly comprised of worn-out buildings and houses with a satisfactory number of resources including a public library, school, health care centers, pharmacies etc… During the assessment of this neighbourhood we noticed that the physical environment was contaminated with the presence of garbage on the streets and in residential areas. As we were walking through this area during our assessment, we noticed a strong smell of cigarette smoke in many areas on the streets and in some residential areas. We also observed many people smoking in the area which creates a harmful environment of second-hand smoke. Lastly, we noted th...
For example experts argued that the siting of landfills in Warren County made no scientific sense. This explains that the pollution sources are purposely placed in the vicinity of minorities despite the knowledge of the fact that it will the residents drinking water. Also, as shown in the article, “Environmental justice: Income, Race, and Health, “... Asthma prevalence in the U.S in significantly higher in minority and low-income populations than in the general population. Unequal exposure to environmental factors that triggers or exacerbate asthma may play a role.” This shows how the government places hazardous companies in minority dominant communities, which exposes them to toxic hazardous and unsafe conditions. This demonstrates how environmental racism is marked by contamination from different sources of
...or Powertech and its Colorado land and project manager, urges that its company’s proposal be judged on facts; however, does Douglas have a bias towards Powertech, Would her statement be different if she wasn’t working for them, and is she being neutral. Douglas implies the words “good science”, the word “good” is subjective, and it means different things to different people. “Good” science cannot be pure good; it always has its “bad” aspects linked to it. As a result, “good” science alone can never provide the answers wanted.
Max Weber mentions that bureaucracy is characterized by impersonality (Weber, 1997), and this is another reason why it is an irrelevant phenomenon in the study of organizations. The relationships between the executive officials and their juniors in an organization that adopts a bureaucratic system of leadership in usually impersonal. Although impersonality of bureaucracy is praised as important in promoting equality by some scholars, it is a bureaucratic characteristic that cause infuriation in organizations as individual treatment of people is overridden by generalization, something that Gajduschek (2003) attests to. An important point to bear in mind is that offended employees are ultimately unproductive employees. Bureaucracies are often
...ieves that the knowledge is contributing to society. The scientist’s own drive to obtain knowledge versus the society’s need to obtain knowledge differ in the degree of limitations since the society’s moral judgments have more limiting factors on the methods to create the knowledge society demands rather than the artistic or scientific drive to obtain that knowledge.
Wilcock, D. A. (2013). From blank spcaes to flows of life: transforming community engagment in environmental decision-making and its implcations for localsim. Policy Studies 34:4, 455-473.
Often, scientists are tasked with the role of providing evidence to support theories or to predict future outcomes based on scientific research. This methods or research are usually accepted in natural sciences like chemistry and physics. This is because unlike social science, they usually use formulas, well laid out structures and methods (Guttin, 2012). However, when it comes to social science, researchers usually work using theories by formulating hypothesis, and researching to prove or disapprove the theories. When doing this, social science researchers usually become advocates in certain circumstances. This paper highlights some of the pros and cons of scientists becoming advocates, and gives examples of when social scientists become advocates and situations where they observe objectivity.
Another large debate in the issues and impacts of obesity is the responsibility of employer’s. Especially for those whose obesity comes from a sedentary lifestyle. Or perhaps need the preventative measures of keeping obesity at bay. A hot topic on the rise is whether or not employers should be mandated to give employees a work-out period in their schedule. The employers could offer employee’s incentives for utilizing resources (a company gym, discounted memberships, and dietician, walking a company track) and by using the resources keep costs low. Though initially it could be costly to take on the responsibility to offer extra incentives to employee’s it could offer long term potential savings. (Villareal, Apovian, Kushner, and Klein 2005) Those whose companies offer various programs and actively engage in them express more happiness, productivity, a greater quality of life, and overall better health. Better health allows for employee’s to serve their employers better. They use less sick pay, keep insurance premiums low, and are more likely to be in tune with their daily job. So while the initial cost may be high, the long term financial gain of a happy, healthy, productive team is hard not to invest in!