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Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change
In Ghosts of Organizations Past, Dan Ryan asks, “Why are urban communities such hard places to implement community improvement programs?” Looking at New Haven, Connecticut, and a now-defunct program called Fighting Back, which was created to build community coalitions against the abuse of alcohol and other drugs, Ryan shows how the normal properties of organizations generate apparent pathologies. He shows how the “ghosts,” or artifacts, of past organizations, both inhibited and enhanced Fighting Back's chances of success.

Ryan draws on concepts from the study of organizations, social capital, and social networks to re-think questions such as “What kind of thing is a community?” and “Why is it so difficult to build community initiatives out of organizations?” He provides a social organizational explanation for problems familiar to anyone who has been involved in community programs, issues that are usually understood as personal incompetence, turf wars, greed, or corruption.

Ghosts of Organizations Past describes the challenges of using organizations to create change in places in dire need of it.
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Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change
In Ghosts of Organizations Past, Dan Ryan asks, “Why are urban communities such hard places to implement community improvement programs?” Looking at New Haven, Connecticut, and a now-defunct program called Fighting Back, which was created to build community coalitions against the abuse of alcohol and other drugs, Ryan shows how the normal properties of organizations generate apparent pathologies. He shows how the “ghosts,” or artifacts, of past organizations, both inhibited and enhanced Fighting Back's chances of success.

Ryan draws on concepts from the study of organizations, social capital, and social networks to re-think questions such as “What kind of thing is a community?” and “Why is it so difficult to build community initiatives out of organizations?” He provides a social organizational explanation for problems familiar to anyone who has been involved in community programs, issues that are usually understood as personal incompetence, turf wars, greed, or corruption.

Ghosts of Organizations Past describes the challenges of using organizations to create change in places in dire need of it.
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Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change

Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change

by Dan Ryan
Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change

Ghosts of Organizations Past: Communities of Organizations as Settings for Change

by Dan Ryan

Overview

In Ghosts of Organizations Past, Dan Ryan asks, “Why are urban communities such hard places to implement community improvement programs?” Looking at New Haven, Connecticut, and a now-defunct program called Fighting Back, which was created to build community coalitions against the abuse of alcohol and other drugs, Ryan shows how the normal properties of organizations generate apparent pathologies. He shows how the “ghosts,” or artifacts, of past organizations, both inhibited and enhanced Fighting Back's chances of success.

Ryan draws on concepts from the study of organizations, social capital, and social networks to re-think questions such as “What kind of thing is a community?” and “Why is it so difficult to build community initiatives out of organizations?” He provides a social organizational explanation for problems familiar to anyone who has been involved in community programs, issues that are usually understood as personal incompetence, turf wars, greed, or corruption.

Ghosts of Organizations Past describes the challenges of using organizations to create change in places in dire need of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781439912553
Publisher: Temple University Press
Publication date: 06/10/2015
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Dan Ryan is Kathryn P. Hannam Associate Professor at Mills College in Oakland, California and Adjunct Professor of Technology and Social Science in the Iovine and Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I / From Opportunity to Disaster (and Back Again)
1 The Ghosts of Organizations Past
Part II / Disaster and Opportunity
2 From Disaster to Opportunity 
3 From Opportunity to Disaster
Part III / Communities and Organizations
4 What Kind of Thing Is Community?
5 What Kind of Thing Is an Organization?
6 Doing Things with Organizations in Communities
Part IV / Organizing Organizations
7 Doing Things with Organizations: The Cost of Organizational Diversity
8 Doing Things with Organizations: The Cost of System
9 Networks of Garbage Cans: The Amplification of Irrationality
10 Networks and Calendar Noise
Part V / Social Organizational Junkyards
11 Community as Organizational Junkyard
12 Why Can’t Organizations Be Like Us?
Bibliography
Index
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