What’s Missing? SOCI 101 November 29, 2011 SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 1 / 25
What’s Missing? I. Health and Health Care II. Mistakes, Misconduct, and Disaster III. Economics and Performativity SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 2 / 25
I Health and Health Care SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 3 / 25
Society and Health Causal Directions Social Factors ? ? Health SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 4 / 25
Social Effects on Health Care Typical approach Inequalities in: Diet Access to health care Education Opportunities for physical activity SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 5 / 25
Medicine and Culture Lynn Payer (1988) Doctors in USA, Britain, Germany, France “only about 15% of all contemporary [1988] medical interventions are supported by objective clinical evidence that they do more good than harm.” Vague symptoms SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 6 / 25
Hospitalization Rates The relative risks of hospitalization (as compared with Rochester children) for Boston and New Haven children, respectively, were 3.8 and 2.3 for asthma, 6.1 and 2.9 for toxic ingestions, and 2.6 and 2.7 for head injuries. –JM Perrin, CJ Homer, DM Berwick, AD Woolf, JL Freeman, and JE Wennberg “Variations in rates of hospitalization of children in three urban communities,” 1989. SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 7 / 25
Diagnostic Dilemmas: ADHD Is it just “kids being kids?” Teachers and parents believe in it Stimulants make everyone concentrate better Social differences in diagnosis and treatment What makes it a disorder? SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 8 / 25
ADHD All children, 4–17 7.8% Boys 11% Girls 4.4% White 8.6% Black 7.7% Health insured 8.1% Not insured 4.9% SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 9 / 25
ADHD SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 10 / 25
Education and Fertility “Demographic Transition” includes fertility decline Education is a key piece, both causal and caused Women’s education is apparently particularly important Why? SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 11 / 25
II Mistake, Misconduct, and Disaster Systems Breakdown When, under what conditions, and why do things go wrong? SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 12 / 25
Complex Systems Lots of “working parts” Nestedness Degree of coupling SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 13 / 25
Flexibility and Rigidity in Complex Systems Basic tradeoff Flexible complex systems: bend but don’t break Rigid complex systems: reliable but fragile SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 14 / 25
Theory: When Can Things Go Wrong? The system is too rigid The system is too flexible People within the system are malicious Unforseeable exogenous events SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 15 / 25
Breakdown is Intrinsic Charles Perrow, Normal Accidents Breakdowns are normal parts of complex systems over time (Some) breakdowns are the results of systems failure Catastrophic breakdowns can (usually) be avoided Human implications of breakdowns can vary SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 16 / 25
Example 1: The Buffalo Creek Disaster 1972, West Virginia coal mining country Questionable practices, “invisible” areas Linear assumption of security Social, psychological oucomes of disaster SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 17 / 25
The MOVE Bombing Philadelphia, 1985: countercultural cult MOVE Provocations, escalations, breakdown ⇒ “bombing” Wagner-Pacifici, Discourse and Destruction : MOVE bombing as discursive breakdown SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 18 / 25
The Challenger Launch Decision Exceedingly complex system Significant exogenous variables Tightly coupled What’s the right way to evaluate information about potential failures? Ultimately, NASA does not consider concerns voiced about the O-rings SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 19 / 25
Challenger, Columbia, and Diane Vaughan The Challenger Launch Decision (1996) “History as Cause: Columbia and Challenger.” Ch. 8, Report , Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Vol. 1. August 2003. SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 20 / 25
Other Candidate Examples The Enron meltdown The Matt Doherty era The 2000 Florida elections SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 21 / 25
III Economics and Performativity Do people act economically rationally? Why? Is economic behavior natural or produced? Options pricing and the Black-Scholes-Merton Equation SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 22 / 25
H. Economicus SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 23 / 25
Sociological critiques of H. Economicus Culture and collective morality Inconsistent preferences Prejudice and discrimination Performativity SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 24 / 25
Performativity MacKenzie and Millo, AJS 109:1 (2003) SOCI 101 () What’s Missing? November 29, 2011 25 / 25
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