From Iron Cage to Pigeon House: The Birth of Reflexive Authority

Abstract

In recent years, Weber's image of the 'iron cage' has been challenged by the sociologists Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. They claim that this image no longer applies to the late modern world we are entering. In the late modern era, individuals, institutions and organizations have become or will become reflexive, and as a consequence the iron cage of rationalization is opening. In this article, the authors largely subscribe to the theories of Beck and Giddens though formulate two objections. First, they demonstrate that the theories each illuminate only one level of social life in late modernity and should be combined. Second, they claim that in the theories of Beck and Giddens a search for a possible integrating phenomenon is largely missing. By combining the theories they disentangle a new form of integration, which may emerge in late modernity. This new form of integration they dub 'reflexive authority'.

When Uncertainty is Interpreted as Risk: An Analysis of Tensions Relating to Spatial Planning Reform in England

“…It is a calculable entity which can be observed and measured (Gunder & Hillier, 2009, p. 58) and which exists empirically when known probabilities of occurrence can be assigned to it (Johnson et al, 2000). Risk, as a codified social construct linked to misfortune, tends to be focused by sets of practices which channel power (Hoogenboom & Ossewaarde, 2005). There is a distinction between objective, quantifiable risk and subjective, perceived risk.…”

“…Best Value had emerged elsewhere as a powerful way of managing systems and ordering responses (Hoogenboom & Ossewaarde, 2005). It offered rewards for those local authorities that excelled in relation to their targets in the form of minimal regulation and intervention, kudos (e.g.…”

“…Beacon status service providers), linked funding and opportunities -and sanctions (as indicated above) for those that missed their targets. By utilizing the Best Value regime in its reformed planning system, the government was drawing on the pre-existing, familiar codifying mechanism associated with performance linked to risk, and planners understood the imperatives (Beck, 1999;Hoogenboom & Ossewaarde, 2005).…”

The shock of the new? Democratic narratives and political agency

“…In many cases, attempts err on the side of caution: Jordan and Maloney (2007) certainly see there being little room for further softening existing bureaucratic conventions within social movement organisations beyond its segmenting of core-membership and 'active supporters' subgroups. Within organisational studies, at least, we have seen recent attempts to hybridise bureaucratic and postbureaucratic organisation under the moniker of reflexive or distributed leadership (Gronn 2000, Hoogenboom and Ossewarde 2005, Lawler 2008). These echo DIY/ post-bureaucratic principles of participatory decision-making and institutionalised dialogue and retain not only a durable loyalty to the organisation itself through a binding commitment to the group's political goals, but also a personal loyalty Policy Studies 169 towards group leaders for their role in promoting and facilitating a commitment to these principles.…”

The Institutions of Archaic Post-Modernity and Their Organizational and Managerial Consequences: The Case of Portugal

“…The transition was seen to be due to a combination of elements such as the development of modern capitalism, the constitutional state, and modern bureaucracies (Hoogenboom and Ossewaarde 2005), which are mixed in different proportions in the classical theorists' explanations of modernity. The "brave new world" resulting from the modernist project was one of calculus, technicality and apparent rationality.…”