Charles Perrow's Books

The Next Catastrophe

Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters (New in Paper)

By: Charles Perrow

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The Next Catastrophe

Reducing Our Vulnerabilities to Natural, Industrial, and Terrorist Disasters (New in Paper)

By: Charles Perrow

Perrow is famous for his ideas about normal accidents, the notion that multiple and unexpected failures - catastrophes waiting to happen - are built into our society's complex systems. He offers crucial insights into how to make us safer, proposing a bold new way of thinking about disaster preparedness.

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430

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691150168

ISBN 13

9780691150161

Organizing America

Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism

By: Charles Perrow

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Organizing America

Wealth, Power, and the Origins of Corporate Capitalism

By: Charles Perrow

American society today is shaped not nearly as much by vast open spaces as it is by vast, bureaucratic organizations. Over half the working population toils away at enterprises with 500 or more employees--up from zero percent in 1800. Is this institutional immensity the logical outcome of technological forces in an all-efficient market, as some have argued? In this book, the first organizational history of nineteenth-century America, Yale sociologist Charles Perrow says no. He shows that there was nothing inevitable about the surge in corporate size and power by century's end. Critics railed against the nationalizing of the economy, against corporations' monopoly powers, political subversion, environmental destruction, and "wage slavery." How did a nation committed to individual freedom, family firms, public goods, and decentralized power become transformed in one century? Bountiful resources, a mass market, and the industrial revolution gave entrepreneurs broad scope. In Europe, the state and the church kept private organizations small and required consideration of the public good. In America, the courts and business-steeped legislators removed regulatory constraints over the century, centralizing industry and privatizing the railroads. Despite resistance, the corporate form became the model for the next century. Bureaucratic structure spread to government and the nonprofits. Writing in the tradition of Max Weber, Perrow concludes that the driving force of our history is not technology, politics, or culture, but large, bureaucratic organizations. Perrow, the author of award-winning books on organizations, employs his witty, trenchant, and graceful style here to maximum effect. Colorful vignettes abound: today's headlines echo past battles for unchecked organizational freedom; socially responsible alternatives that were tried are explored along with the historical contingencies that sent us down one road rather than another. No other book takes the role of organizations in America's development as seriously. The resultant insights presage a new historical genre.

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Page Count

272

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1400825083

ISBN 13

9781400825080

Normal Accidents

Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition

By: Charles Perrow

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Normal Accidents

Living with High Risk Technologies - Updated Edition

By: Charles Perrow

Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.

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462

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

140082849X

ISBN 13

9781400828494

Environment and Society

Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues

By: Charles Harper,Monica Snowden

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Environment and Society

Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues

By: Charles Harper,Monica Snowden

The sixth edition of Environment and Society continues to connect issues about human societies, ecological systems, and the environment with data and perspectives from different fields. While the text looks at environmental issues from a primarily sociological viewpoint, it is designed for courses in Environmental Sociology and Environmental Issues in departments of Sociology, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, and Human Geography. Clearly defined terms and theories help familiarize students from various backgrounds with the topics at hand. Each of the chapters is significantly updated with new data, concepts, and ideas. Chapter Three: Climate Change, Science and Diplomacy, is the most extensively revised with current natural science data and sociological insights. It also details the factors at play in the establishment of the Paris Agreement and its potential to affect global climate change. This edition elevates questions of environmental and climate justice in addressing the human-environment relations and concerns throughout the book. Finally, each chapter contains embedded website links for further discussion or commentary on a topic, concludes with review and reflection questions, and suggests further readings and internet sources.

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Page Count

448

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Published Date

ISBN 10

1315463245

ISBN 13

9781315463247

Exploring Social Change

America and the World

By: Charles L. Harper,Kevin T. Leicht

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Exploring Social Change

America and the World

By: Charles L. Harper,Kevin T. Leicht

For one semester junior/senior and beginning-level graduate courses in Social Change. An introduction to social change that highlights theories on key topics including social change, innovation, social movements, and revolutions. Exploring Social Change: America and the World 6e is a comprehensive introduction to social change. The last part of the book shifts explicitly to the global level to analyze population and environmental issues and globalization. Within this framework, the book discusses topics about change and its problems familiar in sociology and social science.

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Page Count

433

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1317348419

ISBN 13

9781317348412

Post-Industrial Lives

Roles and Relationships in the 21st Century

By: Jerald Hage,Charles Powers

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Post-Industrial Lives

Roles and Relationships in the 21st Century

By: Jerald Hage,Charles Powers

The interesting contribution of this book is not just confined to capturing the role changes that a knowledge based society characterizing post-industrialism demands, but that it is able to bring about a fusion of micro individual and the macro societal role relationships..... This book makes interesting and useful reading for the serious management practitioner interested in gaining a grasp of the role alterations that are taking place in his own work domain, and comprehend its implications. The contribution of this work to sociological theory is in making predictions about the social changes which can come up with the transformation to a knowledge based society. --Vikalpa "The interesting contribution of this book is not just confined to capturing the role changes that a knowledge based society characterizing post-industrialism demands, but that it is able to bring about a fusion of micro individual and the macro societal role relationships. This book, due to its rigour, is essentially academic oriented. But the writing style is such that it can also make interesting and useful reading for the serious management practitioner interested in gaining a grasp of the role alterations that are taking place in his own work domain, and comprehend its implications." --Unnikrishnan K. Nair in Vikalpa The shift from an industrial to a post-industrial society has been documented extensively, as has its impact on the macro-level institutions of society--government, the workplace, and the economy. But how has post-industrial life impacted the individual and relationships between individuals? Hage and Powers examine this intriguing question by linking global changes in work patterns, information flow and knowledge to the practice of everyday life. They conclude that the complexities of society require a different kind of people, those with complex selves and creative minds, capable of confronting the challenges of the forthcoming century. Creativity, flexibility, and emotional astuteness will be the buzzwords of the future, as well as personality traits that will enable people to successfully adapt to the ever-changing swirl of workplace, familial, personal, and leisure roles. Based on the tenets of social theory, the authors present a window into the future and a plan for personal and interpersonal action. Their insights will shed light for social psychologists, social theorists, futurologists, organizational theorists, network analysts, and communication researchers. "It is stimulating to encounter a work of such intellectual audacity that is so solidly buttressed by sound scholarship and respect for evidence. The core argument, which is based heavily on symbolic interactionist theory, has the ring of truth. This is a thoroughly remarkable book--broad in scope, significant in its implications, and, better than any I know, making eminently good sense of the eddying social currents and bewildering social changes that characterize contemporary society. I predict that it will have a major and lasting impact on the field." --Morris Rosenberg, University of Maryland "This book is one of those rare works that courageously turns established assumptions on their heads and challenges the whole field of sociology to shift directions. It offers a version of functionalism calling for continuous change rather than stability, with functional prerequisites at the individual level. It deplores current sociology′s dominant emphasis on power and money, offering in their place the unequal distribution of knowledge as the key organizing principle. Rather than formulating theory primarily at the macro or micro level, it focuses on the meso level, where micro and macro are linked through a unique revision of role theory. Hage and Powers take symbolic interaction as their starting perspective, but modify and extend the work of George Herbert Mead in imaginative ways. At the same time, they draw selectively on the work of structuralists Merton and Nadel to develop a thoughtful linkage between micro- and macro-sociological processes in a social structure in which flexible networks rather than formal organizations are the key components. Post-Industrial Lives could well become the touchstone for broad debate on the nature of sociological theory, and the paradigm that stimulates a widely ranging body of new empirical research." --Ralph Turner, University of California, Los Angeles "Hage and Powers bring their in-depth sociological analysis of the changes central to post-industrial and post-modern life home--to where we live and work. They succeed in the best sense of the sociological imagination to bridge the micro and macro, the personal and the structural. They not only build a theoretical framework for understanding the changes in society, but encourage us to appreciate that as the old role scripts and hierarchical controls give way to networks of interacting people, we have more independence to fashion our own personal connections to others." --Barbara Sherman Heyl, Illinois State University "The authors have given a remarkable, coherent theoretical outline of postindustrial society. . . . This book is written in an extraordinarily clear and understandable scientific prose." --American Journal of Sociology "Most of the books on post-industrial society, and more recently, on post-modernism are distinguished by their vagueness and imprecision. In contrast, this book examines in detail the effects of increasing societal complexity and change on the structure of roles, and vice versa. The book does a masterful job of utilizing, criticizing, and extending classic and contemporary theoretical literatures in developing a well reasoned conceptual perspective. By focusing on roles, role-sets, status-sets, person-sets, and role-relationships, the authors link changes in the macrostructural forces of modern societies in terms of increased complexity of networks and matrices to meso level changes in organizational forms and to micro level transformations in self, emotions, and styles of interaction. And, all of this fine analytical work is done in a highly readable fashion which realizes the rare goal of appealing to students, practitioners, lay persons, and academics. The authors have, therefore, made the analysis of post-industrial society theoretically sophisticated, while at the same time making it empirically and experientially relevant." --Jonathan H. Turner, University of California, Riverside

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Page Count

263

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Published Date

ISBN 10

1452245991

ISBN 13

9781452245997

Generalist Practice

A Task-centered Approach

By: Eleanor Reardon Tolson,William James Reid,Charles D. Garvin

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Generalist Practice

A Task-centered Approach

By: Eleanor Reardon Tolson,William James Reid,Charles D. Garvin

This basic textbook seeks to establish a "task-centered" methodology--a structured, short-term, problem-solving approach--applicable across systems at five levels of practice: the individual, the family, the group, organizations, and communities. The second edition offers more information on systems theories and includes case studies with each chapter. Checklists are provided for each level of practice along with questions for consideration and practice exercises to help students monitor their understanding and skill development.

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Page Count

544

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231121822

ISBN 13

9780231121828

Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations

By: Rino J Patti,Charles A Rapp,John Poertner

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Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations

By: Rino J Patti,Charles A Rapp,John Poertner

This important book is the first to make an explicit link between management practices and service outcomes in social welfare agencies. Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations is based on the premise that the primary responsibility and distinctive competency of social welfare management is delivering high quality, effective services to clients. Collectively, the book’s esteemed contributors have clearly presented a model of administration founded on concepts and strategies for connecting managerial action with service effectiveness. The sections of the book correspond to the core functions and tasks in an effective approach to management, including measuring performance, program and organizational design, managing people, managing information, managing environmental relations, and the ethics of managing for effectiveness.

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Page Count

306

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1135851905

ISBN 13

9781135851903

Strategic Organizational Communication

In a Global Economy

By: Charles Conrad,Marshall Scott Poole

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Strategic Organizational Communication

In a Global Economy

By: Charles Conrad,Marshall Scott Poole

Surveying a wide variety of disciplines, this fully-revised 7th edition offers a sophisticated and engaging treatment of the rapidly expanding field of organizational communication Places organizations and organizational communication within a broader social, economic, and cultural context Applies a global perspective throughout, including thoughtful consideration of non-Western forms of leadership, as well as global economic contexts Offers a level of sophistication and integration of ideas from a variety of disciplines that makes this treatment definitive Updated in the seventh edition: Coverage of recent events and their ethical dimensions, including the bank crisis and bailouts in the US and UK Offers a nuanced, in-depth discussion of technology, and a new chapter on organizational change Includes new and revised case studies for a fresh view on perennial topics, incorporating a global focus throughout Online Instructors' Manual, including sample syllabi, tips for using the case studies, test questions, and supplemental case studies

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Page Count

534

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

1444338633

ISBN 13

9781444338638

The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures

By: Donald G. Firesmith,Peter Capell,Dietrich Falkenthal,Charles B. Hammons,DeWitt T. Latimer IV,Tom Merendino

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The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures

By: Donald G. Firesmith,Peter Capell,Dietrich Falkenthal,Charles B. Hammons,DeWitt T. Latimer IV,Tom Merendino

Offering a practical way to generate effective and efficient project-specific system architecture engineering methods, this volume addresses the entire range of systems architecture including hardware, software, subsystems, and systems of systems. It defines a set of architectural roles and teams and provides a repository of reusable architectural engineering process components to develop high-quality system architectures. It examines a cohesive set of tailorable tasks and components steps for producing associated architectural work products and establishes a recommended set of industry best practices for engineering the architecture of software-intensive systems.

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Page Count

520

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

142008576X

ISBN 13

9781420085761

Exploring Social Change

America and the World

By: Charles L. Harper,Kevin T. Leicht

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Exploring Social Change

America and the World

By: Charles L. Harper,Kevin T. Leicht

Exploring Social Change provides a compelling analysis of theories that explain social change, innovation, social movements, and revolution, and concludes with reflections about how individuals do and should live in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Written in a personal and clear manner, the authors provide definitions of key terms and analysis of theories and ideas from the study of social change. The seventh edition includes updated examples reflecting the social changes that have occurred in the world around us, including new discussions on the environmental and social landscapes, as well as updated methods and discussions that reflect that changing field of social change study.

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Page Count

440

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351679937

ISBN 13

9781351679930

Aviation Automation

The Search for A Human-centered Approach

By: Charles E. Billings

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Aviation Automation

The Search for A Human-centered Approach

By: Charles E. Billings

The advent of very compact, very powerful digital computers has made it possible to automate a great many processes that formerly required large, complex machinery. Digital computers have made possible revolutionary changes in industry, commerce, and transportation. This book, an expansion and revision of the author's earlier technical papers on this subject, describes the development of automation in aircraft and in the aviation system, its likely evolution in the future, and the effects that these technologies have had -- and will have -- on the human operators and managers of the system. It suggests concepts that may be able to enhance human-machine relationships in future systems. The author focuses on the ability of human operators to work cooperatively with the constellation of machines they command and control, because it is the interactions among these system elements that result in the system's success or failure, whether in aviation or elsewhere. Aviation automation has provided great social and technological benefits, but these benefits have not come without cost. In recent years, new problems in aircraft have emerged due to failures in the human-machine relationship. These incidents and accidents have motivated this inquiry into aviation automation. Similar problems in the air traffic management system are predicted as it becomes more fully automated. In particular, incidents and accidents have occurred which suggest that the principle problems with today's aviation automation are associated with its complexity, coupling, autonomy, and opacity. These problems are not unique to aviation; they exist in other highly dynamic domains as well. The author suggests that a different approach to automation -- called "human-centered automation" -- offers potential benefits for system performance by enabling a more cooperative human-machine relationship in the control and management of aircraft and air traffic.

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Page Count

251

Publisher

CRC Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351464922

ISBN 13

9781351464925

Elusive Equality

Desegregation and Resegregation in Norfolk's Public Schools

By: Jeffrey L. Littlejohn,Charles H. Ford

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Elusive Equality

Desegregation and Resegregation in Norfolk's Public Schools

By: Jeffrey L. Littlejohn,Charles H. Ford

In Elusive Equality, Jeffrey L. Littlejohn and Charles H. Ford place Norfolk, Virginia, at the center of the South's school desegregation debates, tracing the crucial role that Norfolk’s African Americans played in efforts to equalize and integrate the city’s schools. The authors relate how local activists participated in the historic teacher-pay-parity cases of the 1930s and 1940s, how they fought against the school closures and "Massive Resistance" of the 1950s, and how they challenged continuing patterns of discrimination by insisting on crosstown busing in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite the advances made by local activists, however, Littlejohn and Ford argue that the vaunted "urban advantage" supposedly now enjoyed by Norfolk’s public schools is not easy to reconcile with the city’s continuing gaps and disparities in relation to race and class. In analyzing the history of struggles over school integration in Norfolk, the authors scrutinize the stories told by participants, including premature declarations of victory that laud particular achievements while ignoring the larger context in which they take place. Their research confirms that Norfolk was a harbinger of national trends in educational policy and civil rights. Drawing on recently released archival materials, oral interviews, and the rich newspaper coverage in the Journal and Guide, Virginian-Pilot, and Ledger-Dispatch, Littlejohn and Ford present a comprehensive, multidimensional, and unsentimental analysis of the century-long effort to gain educational equality. A historical study with contemporary implications, their book offers a balanced view based on a thorough, sober look at where Norfolk’s school district has been and where it is going.

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Page Count

469

Publisher

University of Virginia Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0813932890

ISBN 13

9780813932897

Book's by Charles Perrow

The Next Catastrophe

The Next Catastrophe

Organizing America

Organizing America

Normal Accidents

Normal Accidents

Environment and Society

Environment and Society

Exploring Social Change

Exploring Social Change

Post-Industrial Lives

Post-Industrial Lives

Generalist Practice

Generalist Practice

Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations

Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations

Strategic Organizational Communication

Strategic Organizational Communication

The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures

The Method Framework for Engineering System Architectures

Exploring Social Change

Exploring Social Change

Aviation Automation

Aviation Automation

Elusive Equality

Elusive Equality

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