Virtual machines?
Consider a machine. Levers. Pulleys. Engines. Computers.
Each has a design that deploys rules of nature to consistently generate a result. Fuel. Flame. Combustion-> Movement. Friction. Ratios.
There are more abstract machines— social machines like organizations. There is no clear conception of “what an organization is” or natural laws on “why they work” but some do and some don’t. Just like other machines. It took many failed attempts at flight before success. But with social machines, organizations, the lack of natural laws on human interaction has led to some uncertainty.
There are even more abstract machines that exist virtually, basic ideas or logics that turn inputs into outputs, maintains order, so on. Democracy is one.
Debt limit
What happens when the debt limit becomes political? U.S. debt is not bad, it serves to stabilize international currencies as gold once did. So … enact a balanced budget and what happens to the value of U.S. debt? Placing the payoff of U.S. debt as a priority above all other things, the tax payers of the united states back the debt, with the balanced budget in place the value of our debt sky rockets as the stability of it is demonstrated to be absolute… it is a no risk bet, but the amount of it is decreasing as we are not generating more debt and are focussed on paying it back.
Knowledge Utilization and Policy Analysis
This post discusses two journal articles:
Hird, J.A. (2005). Policy analysis for what? The effectiveness of nonpartisan policy research organizations. The policy studies journal, 33 (1), pp. 83-105.
Shulock, N. (1999). The paradox of policy analysis: If it is not used, why do we produce so much of it? Journal of policy analysis and management, 18 (2), pp. 226-244.
Both Shulock and Hird discuss the use of the knowledge generated by policy analysis in policymaking. Both scholars argue that policy analysis is primarily used in the policy process, and has a smaller effect on the policies themselves.
The resurrection of God: A musing on the of the ethnocentrized, Americanized, technologized & capitalized g[]d of the 21st century.
Technology, specifically the Web, is a grand theodicy of the early 21st century. In the face of evil and societal failures it gives birth to new identities— souls— for individuals, nurtures the ever so important Libertarian freewill, grants such individuals the power to do great evil, and recognizes postmodern natural laws— a stable ‘natural’ medium/experience of the world from the level of computer code and network protocols to human institutions such as Facebook®.
Changes at The New State
Hello colleagues.
I believe that most of you expressed some interest in this as some point in time… if not feel free (as always!) to ignore this message. Last year Brandon Ching created thenewstate.com as an experiment in PA blogging. Though many of us hoped to participate, well… life got in the way. We simply did not generate enough content on a regular basis to… well… consider it successful.
BUT… Brandon is working on an updated site and we are going to try it one more time. There are two reasons for this:
1) We still think it is a good idea. Considering the evolving communication industry, it would behoove us to get some practice in alternative (rapidly becoming dominant) media forms. And writing non-academese is cool. 
Book Review: Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski & Flowers – Presence
Senge, P., Scharmer, O.,C., Jaworski, J., Flowers, B.,S. (2005). Presence: An exploration of profound change in people, organizations and society. Double Day, New York, NY.
ISBN: 0-385-51624-x $27.95
In their text, Presence, Senge, Scharmer, Jaworski, and Flowers present an incredibly thorough and thought provoking theory of change based on awareness and understanding of relationships in living systems. The theory is supported by and illustrated through robust and rich qualitative data comprised of the experiences and events in the lives of the authors, influential, business, spiritual and political leaders globally.
Book Review: Geert Hofstede – Cultures and Organizations
Brandon Ching
3/17/09
Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J., & Hofstede, G. (2004). Cultures and Organizations: Software of
the Mind. McGraw-Hill.
Geert and Gert Hofstedeʼs book, Cultures and Organization: Software of the Mind, is an incredibly thorough and thought provoking analysis of cultural differences
and behavior within the contexts of organizations and groups. Based on original and associated research in a number of countries around the world, the Hofstedeʼs
addresses the impact of five core measures of cultural dimensions and uses them as explanatory means of national behavior and relations.
Book Review: Chris Argyris – Reasons and Rationalizations
Margaretha Warnicke
PAF 603 (Spring 2009)
Argyris, C. (2004). Reasons and rationalizations: The limits to organizational knowledge. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
Chris Argyris’ (2004) most recent book builds on his prior scholarship in organizational learning and change. He unites several different theories with which he has worked over the years in this concise volume to explain two key issues: why individuals in organizations do not learn effectively and why scholars have not been very successful at helping organizations reverse this trend. He identifies defensive reasoning as the chief factor that prohibits individuals and groups within organizations from learning because they: protect one another from embarrassment or harm; employ self-referential logic; avoid transparency in order to ensure self-protection; deny and cover up their self-protective efforts; and then deny the cover up. In order to escape the cycle of defensive reasoning, Argyris proposes that organizations employ double-loop learning and action theory.
Why Nonprofits Should Support Obama’s Proposed Budget Plan
What are the pros and cons of President Obama’s proposed 2010 budget plan for the philanthropic and nonprofit community and society more generally? It appears that when we weigh the costs and benefits, nonprofits and citizens generally will come out ahead. Unfortunately, most of the organized philanthropic community (not necessarily representing most nonprofits) and several politicians have come out against the changes, narrowly framing the issue around what impact the proposed tax changes will have on the wealthiest donors.
