Tom Dwyer

Humor, Power, and Change in Organizations

This paper analyzes joking relationships that are targeted at persons or at those affairs which actors interpret as representing persons. A theory of social relations of work is outlined; the literature illustrates that joking relationships have a content that reflects these relations. The form of joking relationships is then analyzed using Caplows triad theory; this theory allows humor to be seen as a product of power relations and the contesting of these. The theory claims to be able to predict the likelihood of joking relationships between actors of various degrees of power, and the consequences of these, conservative, revolutionary, or improper for the organization. Jokes are analyzed in terms of the theory. Humor analysis can, in a complementary reasoning, be seen as a methodological tool that helps unmask organizational power relations. A number of reflections are drawn about humor in organizations subject to post-industrial change. Humor has no essence; it is inserted into the dynamics of social life and its contents and form reflect social relations, power distributions, and changes in both.

Too much computer and Internet use is bad for your grades, especially if you are young and poor: Results from the 2001 Brazilian SAEB

This work presents the analysis of the 2001 Brazilian Basic Education Evaluation System (SAEB) achievement exam. The SAEB tested 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students, in mathematics and reading (Portuguese). We classified the students into seven socioeconomic classes, and for each class, compared the test results according to frequency of computer use, computer ownership, Internet access at home, and whether the teachers used computers and Internet as pedagogical tools. Frequency of computer use had, in general, a negative effect on the test results, and the negative effect increased for younger and poorer students. Computer ownership had, in general, a small positive effect on the test results for older students, and no effect for 4th graders. Internet access had a negative effect for younger and poorer students, and a positive effect for 11th graders. Finally, whether the teacher used computers or Internet as pedagogical tools had no effect on the students test results for all social economic classes and grades.

Desvendando mitos: os computadores e o desempenho no sistema escolar

Over the last few years, public educational policies have had an emphasis on the need to equip schools with computers

Inteligência artificial, tecnologias informacionais e seus possíveis impactos sobre as Ciências Sociais

This article examines some possibilities for change in Social Sciences and more specifically, on Sociology derived from development and use of informational technologies within that field. In contemporary societies, the growing use of those technologies may bring about important consequences for social sciences, potentially affecting teaching, research and theory building. In Brazil, there is more and more information available in electronic format, which could be analyzed to enlarge our knowledge about society. It is extremely important that the growing resorting to informational technologies is followed by advances in theorization abilities.

New social actors in the context of a developing country: Computerisation in Brazil

Against a background of sociological theories of post-industrial society, development and youth, the relationship between Brazilian adolescents and modern technologies with special reference to computers was analysed in an ethnographic study, carried out within a phenomenological perspective.

From Peace to Rupture

The “work of social peace,” as these institutions—both public and private—have been called, deal with prevention and compensation. Throughout the twentieth century they would increase the scope of their actions, their membership would rise, and their focus would become increasingly varied.

From Sin to Social Peace

The movement from craft and agricultural work to industrial labor brought about transformations in work relations.2 British mining has been subjected to well-documented changes: three peasant workers gathering coal in open cast operations using simple iron tools and a bucket3 gave way to large numbers of people working for wages, under supervision, and with a need to develop knowledge about their underground work world.4

A Sociological Theory of Industrial Accidents

The heart of this chapter is an attempt to follow Hale and Hale’s demand and build a new theory of industrial accidents. To do this, it has been necessary to “reassemble” the sociology of work in such a way that it can be used to understand a series of analytically separate, yet empirically interlinked, social relations in the workplace. The new comprehension is formulated to be sufficiently abstract to lend itself to the analysis of the production of a variety of errors within organizations. Subsequent to this formulation, a specific treatment of accidents takes place.’The theory conceptualizes that peoples’ relationships to their work are managed through social relations of work and that these exist at three levels in the firm—rewards, command, and organization—as well as a nonsocial individual member level. Accidents, which are taken to be a specific case of organizationally produced error, are seen to be produced through the functioning of these levels. Both the accident literature and personal field research are mustered to provide empirical backing for the theory developed. Through the evidence gathered, and through deduction from the theory, a series of hypotheses pertaining to work accidents are constructed, social relation by social relation. Subsequent to detailed discussion of the theory, some general and more abstract hypotheses are made that will guide empirical research. Such is the scope of the main body of the chapter.

Readjusting the Prism

One feature of the 1970s was a series of important renewals of safety and compensation institutions. In many countries safety reforms served to reinforce the standards approach and, in particular, the administration of standards by central government.

Methods and Research Design

In the previous chapter, it was theorized that industrial accidents are produced at three levels of social reality—rewards, command, and organization—and at the nonsocial individual member level. At each social level employers and workers struggle for control and enter into agreement over the management of relationships to work, and as a consequence, goods and services as well as accidents are produced.