In this important theoretical and empirical statement John Law argues against the purity of post-enlightenment political and social theory, and offers an alternative post-modern sociology. Arguing in favor of a sociology of verbs, he suggests that power, organizations, mind-body dualisms, and macro-micro distinctions may all be understood as the local performance of recursive modes of social ordering. Drawing on a range of theoretical traditions including actor-network theory, verstehende sociology, and the writing of Michel Foucault, he explores the production of materials - including agents and architectures - and their importance for these modes of ordering. The book, which draws on organizational ethnography to develop its argument, is essential reading for all those interested in social theory, materialism, or the sociology of organizations at the end of the era of high modernity.

This book provides a re-evaluation of Weber's work on the current debates about the institutional and organizational dynamics of modernity, offering interpretations of his work which emphasize the reality of modernity as a dual process.

Identity and the Modern Organization presents a lively exchange of ideas among psychology and management scholars on the realities of modern organizational life and their effect on the identities that organizations and their members cultivate. This book bridges the domains of psychology and management to facilitate a multi-disciplinary, multi-level

The story of modernist architects in East Central Europe The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the rise of modernist architects. Brokers of Modernity reveals how East Central Europe turned into one of the pre-eminent testing grounds of the new belief system of modernism. By combining the internationalism of the CIAM organization and the modernising aspirations of the new states built after 1918, the reach of modernist architects extended far beyond their established fields. Yet, these architects paid a price when Europe’s age of extremes intensified. Mainly drawing on Polish, but also wider Central and Eastern European cases, this book delivers a pioneering study of the dynamics of modernist architects as a group, including how they became qualified, how they organized, communicated and attempted to live the modernist lifestyle themselves. In doing so, Brokers of Modernity raises questions concerning collective work in general and also invites us to examine the social role of architects today. Ebook available in Open Access. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

This is a brief, authoritative and accessible introduction to the idea of modernity, written by a leading social theorist. Wagner shows that modernity was based on ideas of freedom, reason and progress, but he examines the extent to which these ideas have been, and can be, realized in the modern world.

Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration through Actor-Network Theory presents how actor-network theory (ANT) and the related vocabularies have much to offer to a critical re-imagination of the dynamics of management in education and educational leadership. It extends the growing contemporary perspective of ANT into the study of educational administration and management. This book draws on case studies focusing on new configurations of educational management and leadership. It presents new developments of ANT ("After ANT" and "Near ANT") and clarifies how these "sensibilities" can contribute to thinking critically and intervening in the current dynamics of education. The book proposes that ANT can offer an ecological understanding of educational leadership which is helpful in abandoning the narrow humanistic world of managerialism, considering a post-anthropocentric scenario where it is necessary to compose together new "liveable" assemblages of humans and nonhumans. This book will be of great interest to academics, scholars and post-graduate students in the fields of educational management, leadership and administration, as well as education policy. It will also be highly relevant to policy makers and experts of education policy at the national, European and international levels.

The study of innovation, organisational change and IT takes in broad, complex and wide-ranging perspectives that from a student′s standpoint can be confusing and frequently inaccessible. Organizational Innovations provides a clear understanding of organizational innovation for students and academics teaching in this area. The past decade has greatly transformed our understanding of the origins, evolution and transfer of organizational innovations between sectors and between nations. It selectively draws together the relevant A-Z of key frameworks and concepts from a range of perspectives in organization theory, consumption, management information systems, geography and management of technology. The book offers an accessible introduction to the new approaches and key concepts, and explains how new understanding relates to previous frameworks. The book includes a wide range of examples from a variety of different contexts, including a range of diverse countries. Equal attention is given to the requirements of analysis and practice. It will be essential to students taking courses on innovation. Final year undergraduate courses in management, organization and marketing will find Organizational Innovations of great relevance.