
Managing "Modernity"
Work, Community, and Authority in Late-Industrializing Japan and Russia
Rudra Sil(Author)
The University of Michigan Press
Published on 2. May 2002
Book
Hardback
504 pages
978-0-472-11222-7 (ISBN)
Description
In Managing "Modernity," Rudra Sil examines how institution-builders respond to the competing influences of institutional models and inherited social legacies as they attempt to generate and sustain authority in late-industrializing societies. Through a historical and comparative study of large-scale enterprises in Japan and Russia, the book examines the impact of different institution-building strategies on managerial authority, invoking the experience of postwar Japan to highlight the benefits of a syncretic approach that selectively integrates adaptable features of borrowed institutions with portable norms inherited from preexisting communities.
Managing "Modernity" engages a variety of intellectual perspectives in the social sciences. The theoretical approach represents a conscious effort to overcome the contentious debates in political science and sociology among proponents of historical institutionalism, cultural analysis, and rational-choice theory. The substantive argument draws on, and partially integrates, concepts and findings from comparative politics, economic sociology, industrial relations, organization theory, business management, and the political economy of Japan and Russia.
In light of ongoing debates over the significance and impact of "globalization," the eclectic and integrative approach in Managing "Modernity" offers a fresh and provocative contribution that will interest scholars and graduate students across a variety of disciplines and subfields. It offers compelling insights to anyone generally concerned with the social forces that facilitate or hinder the diffusion of ideas and institutions across national boundaries.
Rudra Sil is Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
Managing "Modernity" engages a variety of intellectual perspectives in the social sciences. The theoretical approach represents a conscious effort to overcome the contentious debates in political science and sociology among proponents of historical institutionalism, cultural analysis, and rational-choice theory. The substantive argument draws on, and partially integrates, concepts and findings from comparative politics, economic sociology, industrial relations, organization theory, business management, and the political economy of Japan and Russia.
In light of ongoing debates over the significance and impact of "globalization," the eclectic and integrative approach in Managing "Modernity" offers a fresh and provocative contribution that will interest scholars and graduate students across a variety of disciplines and subfields. It offers compelling insights to anyone generally concerned with the social forces that facilitate or hinder the diffusion of ideas and institutions across national boundaries.
Rudra Sil is Janice and Julian Bers Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
13 drawings
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-472-11222-7 (9780472112227)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rudra Sil is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania where he holds the Janice and Julian Bers Chair in the Social Sciences.
Content
Preface: ""modernity"" and social science, beyond universal history -- The problem, the argument, and the study -- Institutions of work in theoretical and historical context : sources of variation in the course of industrialization -- Work, community, and authority in late-industrializing Japan : prewar ""traditionalism"" to postwar ""syncretism"" -- Work, community, and authority in late-industrializing Russia : socialist revolution and the ""scientific organization of labor"" -- Comparisons and implications.