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Paradigmatic Narratives: Exemplary Narratives of Everyman

Charlotte Linde

in Working the Past: Narrative and Institutional Memory

This chapter considers stories about ordinary members of the institution which present the story as an example to be followed, and as one piece of a life course which should be emulated. These are ... More

This chapter considers stories about ordinary members of the institution which present the story as an example to be followed, and as one piece of a life course which should be emulated. These are defined as “paradigmatic narratives:” exemplary narratives of Everyman. The paradigmatic narrative of the insurance company consists of stories which show instances of a successful career, and how it was achieved by specific, real-life agents. These stories are intended as models of ordinary success, and as a promise that such success can be accomplished by any member of the institution. This chapter discusses the paradigmatic narrative at MidWest, and recent changes in the career structure which may change not only the details of the paradigmatic narrative, but even the existence of a predictable life course which can be presented as a reliable prediction of careers that are possible for new members.Less

The Senior Civil Service in Belgium

Marleen Brans and Annie Hondeghem

in Bureaucratic Elites in Western European States: A Comparative Analysis of Top Officials

The Belgian senior civil service is in transition, with external pressures clearly pushing the government firmly towards a reform agenda and improving public confidence in the administrative system, ... More

The Belgian senior civil service is in transition, with external pressures clearly pushing the government firmly towards a reform agenda and improving public confidence in the administrative system, in terms of democracy and accountability and of economy and efficiency. In addition, budgetary pressures have combined with political will to ensure that the operation of the administration complies with the new managerialist paradigm. This chapter gives an overview of the position of senior civil servants in the Belgian federal ministries (the federal civil service). It consists of three main sections: the first describes the coexistence of two opposing civil service models, a formal bureaucratic one and an informal politicized one, and assesses the implications of the clash between these models for the position (job definition, classification, and security; the career ladder; salaries; political appointments; and ministerial cabinets) and role conceptions of top civil servants; the second addresses the issue of representativeness of the senior civil service in terms of education, language, and gender; the third deals with the two major challenges to the Belgian senior civil service (external pressure and internal constraints) and the resulting structural reform agenda.Less

From Construction to Production: Labor Management in Transition

in Brazil's Steel City: Developmentalism, Strategic Power, and Industrial Relations in Volta Redonda, 1941-1964

This chapter examines labor management in Brazil during the late 1940s, focusing on the National Steel Company's (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional; CSN) transition to steel production that necessitated ... More

This chapter examines labor management in Brazil during the late 1940s, focusing on the National Steel Company's (Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional; CSN) transition to steel production that necessitated the creation of a workforce with the skills to operate highly specialized equipment. It discusses the bureaucratization of CSN's labor management and the rationalization of its labor regime by implementing personnel policies, staffing plans, and career ladders without eliminating the essential principles of paternalism, including penalties for failure to comply with work orders and merit-based awards and promotions. This paternalist approach prevented the steelworkers from enjoying some of the opportunities that came with the career ladders as well as legally guaranteed benefits such as profit sharing. The inherent conflict between the paternalist and rational tenets of CSN's labor management would contribute to the revival of the local trade union in the early 1950s.Less

A “Semiprofession” in an Era of Accountability

Jal Mehta

in The Allure of Order: High Hopes, Dashed Expectations, and the Troubled Quest to Remake American Schooling

While changes in the way that education was defined were key to subsequent policy debate, the movement toward educator accountability also drew its impetus from a broader movement toward the ... More

While changes in the way that education was defined were key to subsequent policy debate, the movement toward educator accountability also drew its impetus from a broader movement toward the rationalization and lay control of professionals that has affected medicine, law, higher education, and many other fields. Viewing educational politics through this broader lens of the sociology of the professions explains why similar movements toward accountability arose simultaneously across fields, as well as why the teaching profession was particularly vulnerable to these external demands. Previous scholarship on the educational accountability movement has largely ignored the perspective offered by the sociology of the professions on the dynamics of reform. Political scientists who seek to explain the movement toward educational standards and accountability have focused on state and particularly federal legislative history, seeking to understand the key decisions that have propelled education reform. They have paid little attention to similar movements toward accountability in other fields or to how the “semi-professional” status of education may have affected the dynamics of reform. Sociologists who study schooling have noted what they perceive as a trend towards the deprofessionalization of teaching, but their interest is less in the causes of deprofessionalization and more in its consequences for teachers’ work. They also have shown little concern with the question of how professionalization affects the politics of reform or, more sociologically, of what explains the success or failure of teachers’ attempts to increase the professionalization of their practice. This chapter seeks to fill this void and address a series of questions about the movement toward educational accountability from the perspective of the sociology of the professions. This perspective brings several key questions to the fore: Why has there been an increasing demand for accountability across the professions? How does the low status of K–12 education in comparison with other professions affect the demands made by external reformers? How have teachers sought to increase their professional status and power in light of these external demands? And finally, how successful have teachers been in their efforts to professionalize their practice, and what explains their success or lack thereof? Less