Description
Book SynopsisIn the modern world there is no shortage of people who know what is best for others. Self-appointed experts, consultants, and organizations try to convince states, corporations, and individuals that they would be better off if they only followed some specific rules about what to do. These rules are presented as being voluntary and advisory. They are standards, not mandatory directives, and in modern life standards abound.Standards may concern what characteristics a telephone should have, how a company should report its financial transactions, how organizations should be managed, how states should treat their citizens, how children should be raised, and so forth. Even organizations as powerful as states and large corporations follow standards on how to organize, which policies to pursue, what kinds of services to provide, or how their products should be designed. Standards enable a higher degree of global order in the modern world than would exist without them. They facilitate coordinat
Trade ReviewIn this insightful book, Brunsson, Jacobsson and associates propose that standardization provides a viable alternative to market forces and to organizational forms as an institutional arrangement for coordinating and controlling complex exchanges. Their arguments illuminate important facets of current developments in our rapidly globalizing world. * W. Richard Scott, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Stanford University *
The authors do a masterful job of highlighting why the study of standardization merits research attention. . . . this is a valuable book that will guide many future empirical studies. * American Journal of Sociology *
Table of ContentsPART I: REGULATING BY STANDARDS; PART II: PRODUCING AND DISTRIBUTING STANDARDS; PART III: ADOPTING STANDARDS
