444–Work, Organizations, and Markets
Far from supporting the widely held view essential target that both kinds of activists can
that activist campaigns are changing corporate rally around in their continued efforts to
behavior, Seidman’s case studies point to the enhance workers’ rights.
ineffectiveness of independent monitoring.
Seidman’s book is highly informative and a
Monitors do not usually have the time or welcome contribution to the study of activism
resources to visit every site. Because monitors and corporate change. Beyond the Boycott
are dependent on corporate funding and need should find a receptive audience among
permission to access workplaces, their inde- scholars of labor, social movements, and orgapendence from the corporations they regulate nizational change.
is questionable. In the South African case,
auditing relied entirely on data provided by
the companies. The accountability of inde- Culture and Demography in Organizations,
pendent monitors is often suspect because by J. Richard Harrison and Glenn R.
workers themselves have few rights and can- Carroll. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
not question monitoring standards or offer Press, 2005. 296pp. $32.95 paper. ISBN:
their own data regarding compliance. To com- 9780691124827.
plicate matters further, monitoring associations and certification standards tend to pro- MICHAEL J. PRIETULA
liferate over time, leading to a fragmented Emory University
system that consumers find difficult to under- Mike_Prietula@bus.emory.edu
stand.
Seidman’s book convinces the reader that Harrison and Carroll have put together a
improvements need to be made to indepen- remarkable exploration of how computational
dent monitoring. Resource constraint, accessi- models can be used to articulate theory, genbility, and accountability problems cause Sei- erate and explore hypotheses (my term, not
dman to advocate a return to state-oriented theirs), and engage in the rich intellectual
endeavor
by Ingenta
to : of “model mining.” The book’s title
strategies. Seidman argues thatDelivered
the most
Stanford
should perhaps be augmented with the qualeffective campaigns originate from state
coer-University
Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:14:53
cion. Transnational activism has given up on ifier, “Modeling Culture with Simulation” as
the state and thereby weakened traditional that is their method of choice (and, in fact, the
institutions that supported worker’s rights. Sei- title of chapter 2). Every experiment in this
dman believes that enhancing the state’s abil- book is based on a computational model,
ity to regulate corporations will also directly or indirectly. To some, this is scary; to
me, this is interesting. And, they do this quite
strengthen local labor mobilization.
Another potential force for change that is well.
Let me note that these chapters are derived
less prominent in her conclusion is the continued mobilization of consumer activists. One (and updated) from prior work (mostly), but
of the problems with the current system is that they are not loose assemblages of computaconsumers are mostly detached from the mon- tional Gedanken experiments that have no
itoring itself. While consumer activists initially roots in either theory or practice. Rather, they
create boycott campaigns and monitoring are carefully thought-out forms that reflect
schemes, it is not clear what sort of involve- gaps in either theory or presumptions. Each
ment, if any, consumers have in monitoring one is either preceded by, or followed with,
after the boycott ends. Perhaps one reason careful analytical examinations of assumptions
why monitoring consistently fails to live up to and effect. Each one tells part of a story and
the hype is because consumers have no role most lead toward a more coherent underin shaping its implementation. Seidman hints standing of their view and the consequences
at this solution in her conclusion, arguing that within other theoretical stances and observamore trust needs to develop between transna- tions. Now, what is their view?
Their view is concerned with understandtional and local activists. Rather than decoupling local labor organizing from global ing components of cultural stability—why
activists’ efforts to build monitoring and com- culture persists (and does not persist) in orgapliance schemes, the two should work nizations. Now, persistence is an interesting
together more closely. Monitoring would not phenomenon which has a temporal element.
be the end, but rather should be seen as an Over time, many things that may impact culContemporary Sociology 37, 5
Work, Organizations, and Markets–445
ture happen in and to an organization—orga- organizational types (chapter 5), growth and
nizations alter in their size and composition, decline (chapter 6), tenure heterogeneity
organizational environments change, top (chapter 7), influence networks (chapter 8),
management teams change, and things gen- terrorist networks (chapter 9), mergers/acquierally are rather dynamic within the social sitions (chapter 10), and organizational aging
context of organizational membership, such as and failure (chapter 10). Each chapter yields
influence or reward. They argue that to effec- interesting, and sometimes counterintuitive,
tively understand cultural stability, research findings. For example, their model of disruptneeds to focus both on the (dominant) con- ing terrorist cells reveals that the most effective
tent approach to studying culture—defining solution is a combination of individual removal
the substance of a culture as indicated by “the (vs. entire cell removal) and disruption of the
actual set of ideas, beliefs, values, behaviors, replacement process. For another, they refine
symbols, rituals, and the like” (p. xv), as well Stinchcombe’s “liability of newness” concept
as the (less encountered) distributive and show that a simple age-based relationship
approach—which views content (and its inter- to organizational failure might be better
pretation) as “varying across individuals, loca- explained by a complex relationship between
tions in the social structure, and time” (p. xvi). culture, growth, and size. Every experiment is
The latter approach, of course, is less pro- well-defined and explicitly presents the paranounced, in part, because of the difficulties of meters, underlying mathematical form, and
observing and collecting such complex data experimental procedures. The latter are realover sufficient time frames, and across diverse ized by computational modeling.
populations. The content component is realComputational modeling is a specific way
ized as a single construct variable that sub- of doing science, and is used extensively in
sumes the complexities and differences across physical science and is growing in social scitypes and forms, and its distribution and iner- ence. Despite the early innovative and influtia are under the substantial influence of the ential work of researchers such as Cyert and
Delivered by Ingenta to :
demographic activity of the firm. Furthermore,
March (1973), the computational method of
not an insignificant amount of firmStanford
demo- University
doing
social science did not effloresce as in
Mon,
09
Mar
2009
20:14:53
graphics (and desired form of the cultural con- other disciplines. The importance and legititent) are under the control of management. macy is clearly and effectively argued by HarThis brings us to the core model of the rison and Carroll in chapter 2, and this should
book—cultural transmission.
be a “must-read” by those examining (or critTheir model of cultural transmission is icizing) this approach. More to the point, this
comprised of three processes that function as book presents an excellent example of how
the essential mechanisms for cultural trans- this approach can be done with clarity and
mission (and thus persistence) over time: hirrigor, and how a trajectory of such models can
ing practices, socialization processes, and
generate cumulative science. An important
departure processes. Each of these processes
attribute of this book is that it demonstrates
is articulated in specific mathematical forms
how a simple model can be examined in
that reflect behaviors indicated by research, or
depth across conditions to generate plausible
reasonable assumptions on the part of the
explanations for previously observed (or premodelers. In either case, unnecessary comsumed) behaviors, at multiple levels of
plexity is minimized and assumptions are
abstraction.
often extensively tested for sensitivity. The
In summary, this is a focused and well-writauthors nicely stick to two key dependent
ten monograph that demonstrates the value of
variables in their primary experiments, which
computational modeling in, as Jim March may
facilitates interpretation across experimental
contexts: enculturation (the extent to which put it, exploring and exploiting the landscape
the current culture matches the management’s of culture and demography in organizations.
ideal—a fitness metric), and cultural hetero- References
geneity (the standard deviation of the encul- Cyert, Richard M. and James G. March.1963. A
turation score—a distribution metric). The
Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood
experiments in the book are based on this
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
core model, and selectively and systematically Stinchcombe, Arthur. 1965. “Social Structure and
examine various constructs, such as stylized
Organizations.” Pp. 142–93 in Handbook of
Contemporary Sociology 37, 5
446–Work, Organizations, and Markets
Organizations, edited by J. G. March. Chicago,
IL: Rand McNally.
described feeling like “an idiot, a beggar and
a swine running around [welfare] offices” (p.
103).
Nevertheless, even after a decade of postMarket Dreams: Gender, Class and Capitalism communism, workers and managers share
in the Czech Republic, by Elaine Weiner. basically the same “market dreams.” In
Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan 1999–2000 the hegemony of neoliberal ideolPress, 2007. 155pp. $22.95 paper ISBN: ogy remained unbroken among women living
9780472069880.
in the Czech Republic. Managers and workers
expected markets to secure them a better life
IVAN SZELENYI
(though they increasingly thought it might
Yale University
take quite some time before everyone would
ivan.szelenyi@yale.edu
enjoy the benefits of the market) and believed
that in the new society people had to take
Between September 1999 and October 2000,
responsibility for their own lives. Those who
Elaine Weiner interviewed seventy-four Czech
failed should blame either socialism for socialwomen all born between 1944 and 1965—
izing them in the wrong, paternalistic way or
twenty-six of them were managers, the others
blame themselves for not working hard
were manual workers in manufacturing indusenough. One of the main obstacles on the
tries. The book offers a fascinating account of
road to freedom is that people who lived
how these women experienced the transition
under the falsely paternalistic socialist state
from socialism to market capitalism. These
while yearning for freedom are unwilling to
women were asked to comment on a decade
accept the responsibilities for their own life (p.
of difficult times: in this small country about
61). The reelection of Klaus as President in
600,000 jobs (20 percent of all jobs before the February 2008, even though it was only by a
collapse of socialism) were lost. Women were narrow margin, demonstrates the persistency
hit particularly hard. Female employment
Delivered by Ingenta
:
of thisto
ideological
hegemony, which arguably
shrank from 2.5 million in 1985 to 2.1
million University
Stanford
is primarily responsible for the absence of col09 Mar
20:14:53
in 1999 (p. 34). Wages of workersMon,
stagnated
or 2009
lective action by the “losers,” workers, and
declined while incomes of managers skyrock- especially working class women.
eted. The traditionally egalitarian Czech sociOther researchers have claimed that not all
ety had to learn how to live with increasing women were on the losing side in the transiinequalities and with the insecurity of the mar- tion and it was also shown that post-commuket (pp. 36–37, p. 105). The puzzle this nist transition coincided with demobilization
research poses is why society, women, and of popular masses. Weiner’s book offers supworkers in particular were so passive during port for these hypotheses, but complements
this epoch (p. 17).
them with two new, intriguing findings.
The received wisdom among Western
The female managers she interviewed
commentators was that women were the insisted there was no gender discrimination in
“losers” of transition in all post-communist the Czech Republic, though this is starkly consocieties. Weiner challenges both the simple tradicted by statistical fact: while 8 percent of
dichotomy between “losers” and “winners” all Czech men occupy managerial positions,
and she shows that one needs to look at the only 3.5 percent of Czech women are manintersection of class and gender to evaluate agers; and “female managers earned an avermeaningfully who benefited from the transi- age of 54 percent as much as their male countion and who paid the main costs of the col- terparts” (p. 81). According to Weiner, it is the
lapse of socialism. The book focuses on the ideological hegemony of neoliberalism, the
lived experiences of the women Weiner inter- “liberatory tale” (p. 93), which prevents Czech
viewed rather than the changes in their female managers from seeing the realities of
“objective conditions.” For women in man- gender discrimination.
agerial positions, the transition was overFurthermore, Weiner shows that workingwhelmingly a positive experience, while with class women resolve the contradictions
female manual workers the experiences with between the realities of their impoverishment
post-communism were mainly negative. For and the promises of the market dream by proinstance, one of her female respondents jecting the benefits of the market into the
Contemporary Sociology 37, 5