Thursday, November 6, 2008 4:30PM
Uris Hall 302
Siegwart Lindenberg "The Future of Choice-Theoretic Sociology: Norms, Cognition, and Behavior - How Do Norms Really Work and What Are Smart Norms?"
Siegwart (M.) Lindenberg (PhD Harvard 1971) is professor of cognitive sociology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. He is one of the board members of the Interuniversity Center for Social science theory and methodology (ICS) and member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005 he was knighted (order of the Netherlands Lion) for his scientific work by the queen of the Netherlands. For his publications, see his website:www.ppsw.rug.nl/~lindenb
Norms, cognition, and behavior. How do norms really work and what are smart norms? Norm conformity used to be seen as a matter of internalizing norms. Why is this view wrong? What makes norm conformity so precarious? What happens when norms become more abstract? What different microfoundations do we need to deal with norm-guided behavior? These are some of the central questions that are covered in this lecture.
Messenger Series Lecturer James March
James G. March is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, best known for his research on organizations and organizational decision making. March is highly respected for his broad theoretical perspective which combined theories from psychology and other behavioural sciences. As a core member of the Carnegie School, he collaborated with the cognitive psychologist Herbert Simon on several works on organization theory. March is also known for his seminal work on the behavioural perspective on the theory of the firm along with Richard Cyert (1963). In 1972, March worked together with Olsen and Cohen on the systemic-anarchic perspective of organizational decision making known as the Garbage Can Model. Since 1953, he has served on the faculties of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, the University of California, Irvine, and (since 1970) Stanford University. He has been elected to the National Academy of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Education, and has been a member of the National Science Board.
Lecture 3: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 4:30 PM
Kaufmann Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
"The Generation of Novelty"
Lecture 2: Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 4:30 PM
253 Mallott Hall
"The Replication of Success"
Lecture 1: Monday, October 27, 2008, 4:30 PM
Lewis Auditorium, Goldwin Smith Hall
"The Pursuit of Adaptive Intelligence"
Friday, October 3, 2008, 3:00 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall
Yusheng Peng, "When Formal Laws and Informal Norms Collide: The Case of China’s Birth Control Policy "
Yusheng Peng is an associate professor at Brooklyn College (economics), with joint appointment at CUNY Graduate Center (sociology). His primary research interests focus on the institutional analysis of China’s economic development and social change. Recently he published "Township and village governments as industrial firms" (American Journal of Sociology, 2001), “kinship networks and entrepreneurs in China’s transitional economy” (American Journal of Sociology, 2004), and “What has spilled over from Chinese cities into rural industry?” (Modern China, 2007).
Ancestor worship and the idea of carrying on the family bloodline through multiplication are the core norms of lineage in China. These cultural norms came into direct confrontation with the state birth control policy in contemporary China. On the one side, formal laws backed by the powerful and unyielding state apparatus, and on the other side, ancient cultural norms backed by reviving lineage networks. Even though the most draconian state policies did succeed in reducing the overall birthrates dramatically, analyses of village level data show that villages with strong kinship ties tend to have a higher birthrate. The study demonstrates how informal social networks bend the iron bars of the formal institutions.
To view the paper, please visit When Formal Laws and Informal Norms Collide.
Wednesday, September 24th, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall
Barnaby Marsh, "Making the Best Choice"
Dr. Barnaby Marsh is a summa cum laude graduate of Cornell University and attended Magdalen College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar. His work focuses on models of behavior and decision making. He has held academic fellowships at the Hebrew University (Jerusalem), the Smithsonian Institution (Washington), the Max Planck Institute (Berlin), and New College, Oxford (Oxford, UK). He is currently a Fellow
of Cornell's Center for Economy and Society.
What makes a good decision? Models from economics, evolutionary biology, and experimental psychology provide empirical insights regarding how we subjectively understand risk and the unknown, and additionally, how we construct notions of value. But what is missing? This talk will focus on the very rapid increase in knowledge and understanding in our time and how these may ultimately relate to new forms of wisdom for the 21st century.
Wednesday, August 27th, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall
Toby Stuart, "Communications (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization"
Toby E. Stuart is the Charles Edward Wilson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard
Business School. His research has examined the formulation of firm strategies in a number of
industries; the formation, governance, and consequences of strategic alliances; organizational
design and new venture formation in established firms; venture capital networks, and the role of
networks in the creation of new firms. He has published numerous articles in refereed
management, strategy, and general field journals, including Administrative Science Quarterly,
American Journal of Sociology, Science, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science,
and Research Policy.
This is a descriptive study of the structure of communications in a modern organization. We
analyze a dataset with millions of electronic mail messages, calendar meetings and
teleconferences for many thousands of employees of a single, multidivisional firm during a
three-month period in calendar 2006. The basic question we explore asks, what is the role of
observable (to us) boundaries between individuals in structuring communications inside the
firm? We measure three general types of boundaries: organizational boundaries (strategic
business unit and function memberships), spatial boundaries (office locations and inter-office
distances), and social categories (gender, tenure within the firm).
To view the paper, please visit Communications (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization.
Thursday, February 28th, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall
Martin de Santos, Economic Statistics as Cultural Objects
Professor Martin de Santos earned his PhD in Sociology from Yale University in 2007, and he is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Cornell
Sociology Department.
He works at the intersection of cultural and economic sociology. He researched the cultural and social life of statistics in the public sphere, and his work aims to develop a set of concepts to theorize and make visible this understudied dimension of statistics.
Thursday, February 14, 4:30 PM
Room 302 Uris Hall
Matthew Bothner, University of Chicago, will present:
"Primary Status, Complementary Status, and Capital Acquisition in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry"
Matthew S. Bothner earned his Ph.D. of Sociology at Columbia
University, and he is currently an Associate Professor of Organizations and
Strategy at Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.
He researches social status and its effects on the performance and
strategies of venture capital firms, competitive crowding, risk
taking in tournaments, and innovation diffusion in high-technology
environments.
Matthew Bothner recieved the 2006 The Academy of Management
Glueck Best Paper Award for the most outstanding new research in
Business Policy and Strategy for his paper, "Status Volatility and
Organizational Growth in the U.S. Venture Capital Industry." Bothner,
also a recipient of the GSB's Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching,
has published his papers in publications such
as: American Journal of Sociology, Journal of
Mathematical Sociology, and Administrative Science Quarterly.
To view the paper and biographical information, please visit
http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/matthew.bothner/research/two_kinds_of_status.pdf
In April, look forward to:
Edward Laumann, University of Chicago, as he presents
"Network Perspectives on Sexuality, Health and Aging"
Apr. 11th 3:30 p.m, 302 Uris Hall
Upcoming Mini-Symposium
Loïc Wacquant, UC Berkeley, Apr. 17th at AD White House
"THE PENALIZATION OF POVERTY AS PRODUCTION OF REALITY"
"STIGMA, SPACE, AND STATE IN THE MAKING OF THE PRECARIAT"
Andrea Maurer, University of Bundeswehr Munich, Apr. 30th (Wed.) or May 1st
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