Re: institutions
Martin John Packer (mjpacker who-is-at umich.edu)
Sun, 24 Sep 1995 20:39:29 -0400 (EDT)
I'd like to follow a little the thread on institutions as a level of
context that is importantly broader than the local situation, by asking
people to share any analytical frameworks they've come across to
facilitate the empirical examination of an institution like a school.
I've been puzzling for a while over what might replace the theories of
functional hierarchy that used to be the norm. I'll burrow in the boxes
in my office and share some references, but one I can recall now is by
Stephan Ball: "The micro-politics of school: Towards a theory of school
organization." Ball argues that the *informal* order is what defines the
instiution, and that it's irrational struggles for influence and power
that count. This strikes me as an over-reaction to the old functional
rationality, and that we should be looking for a new *kind* of
rationality in the schools. But I've not got much further than that.
(Partly because of irrational struggles for influence and power, now that
I think of it. :))
The other refs I'll excavate tomorrow... I'd be happy to learn of how
others are approaching these questions.
Martin
Packer