Publications

February 2010
Charles Perrow

in Michael Lounsbury, Paul M. Hirsch (ed.) Markets on Trial: The Economic Sociology of the U.S. Financial Crisis: Part A (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 30), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.309-330

Publisher/Abstract: This volume includes two major explanations of the meltdown that I critically discuss. The first is a “normal accident theory” arguing that the complexity and coupling of the financial system caused the failure. Although these structural characteristics were evident, I argue...
January 2010
Charles Perrow

Constance Lever-Tracy, ed., Routledge Handbook of Climate Change and Society. 2010, New York: Routledge. 59-77

  Publisher/Introduction: This essay examines the two biggest environmental polluters, the oil and coal industries, and the possibilities of renewable energy that could replace them. I see the masters of these organisations, CEOs and top officials in the case of corporations, and state leaders in...
January 2010
Karl Mayer

Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 62 (3): 369-402.

  Publisher Link >> Abstract: In this article, we address the current debate of increasing work life flexibility in (West-) Germany. In order to shed some light on the contradiction between a widely accepted decrease in work life stability and empirical findings that do not confirm such a...
January 2010
Karl Mayer

Akademie Verlag 3

  >Publisher Link
June 2009
Wendell Bell

in Vincent Jeffries (ed.), Handbook of Public Sociology. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Vincent Jeffires Publisher Link >> Public sociology—an approach to sociology that aims to communicate with and actively engage wider audiences—has been one of the most widely discussed topics in the discipline in recent years. The Handbook of Public Sociology presents a comprehensive look at...
May 2009
Charles Perrow

Theory and Society May 2009, Volume 38, Issue 3, pp 217-243

  Publisher/Abstract   I examine the apparent deverticalization of firms in the world economy and their adoption of relational contracting and modularization, necessitated by rapid product change, cheap and rapid transport, and new technologies. I argue that relational contracting is superseded...
November 2008
Charles Perrow

Organization 15:6 2008 915-921

Publisher   I have two themes in this brief essay. The fi rst can be summed up in the following way: ‘to reach an audience that is not likely to come to the sermon, much less be a part of the choir, abiding by their conventions is essential’. This theme might be labelled conservative radicalism....
September 2008
Charles Perrow

Social Research 75:3 Fall, 2008, 1-20.

Publisher/Abstract: Natural disasters, unintended disasters (largely industrial and technological), and deliberate disasters have all increased in number and intensity in the United States in the last quarter century2(see Figure 32.1) In the United States we may prevent some and mitigate some,...
August 2008
Charles Perrow

Sociological Inquiry Volume 78, Issue 2, pages 162–173, May 2008

Publisher/Introduction: In a recent book (Perrow 2007), I make the argument that we have neglected the safest and surest means of preventing worst cases—make them mild cases by reducing the deaths and destruction. We will never do well with prevention, remediation, and recovery from natural,...
February 2008
Karl Mayer

Cambridge University Press

>Publisher Link Skills are the scarcest resource in the 21st century. But there is surprisingly little consensus on how they are best acquired. This is the first book to provide an up-to-date analysis of the concept of skill formation within the social sciences and includes contributions of...
January 2008
Karl Mayer

2nd revised edition. Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch 2008

>Publisher Link
August 2007
Wendell Bell

Foresight, Vol. 10 Iss: 3, pp.27 - 42

  Publisher Link >> Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the reasons, especially the assertions about the future, given by the US administration under President Reagan, to justify the decision to attack and invade the Caribbean island of Grenada. Design/methodology/...
January 2006
Karl Mayer

Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.

>Publisher Link The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was the beginning of one of the most interesting natural experiments in recent history. The East German transition from a Communist state to part of the Federal Republic of Germany abruptly created a new social order as old institutions were...
October 2004
Kai Erikson

Wiley, 1966, Prentice Hall; Revised edition 2004. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

  This book uses the Puritan settlement in 17th-century Massachusetts as a setting in which to examine several ideas about deviant behavior in society. Combining sociology and history, Erikson draws on the records of the Bay Colony to illustrate the way in which deviant behavior fits in the...