Teacher interaction networks and system maintenance : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education

Theoretical Considerations Since the study of Hoppock in 1935 a great deal of attention has been shown In the analysis of job satisfaction of workers and personnel in a variety of situations within organisations. This concern has important theoretical and pragmatic considerations. Theoretically, satisfaction is linked to the more general problem of explaining social system persistence and existence. The sociologist is interested to address himself to at least two questions: what were the conditions under which the social system emerged; and under what conditions is it maintained as a viable system? It is the latter question which has particularly concerned the functionalist tradition for the last century. The functionalists - from Durkheim to Parsons - applied the analogy of biological organisations to their explanation of social phenomena. They maintained that even as the biological system has a certain degree of functional interdependence and responsiveness to the external environment so too the social system can be seen as generating structure in response to certain functional problems. They argued, at least implicitly, that the social system was more or less functionally analogous to a biological organism. However there are severe limitations to this argument. Nagel (1961) has argued that any functional analysis must satisfy five criteria: system boundaries are to be specified; the embedding environment must be isolated; the system elements must be specified; the necessary conditions or the system requirements must be understood; and finally a goal state or criterion needs to be established. In biological organisms these conditions are relatively easily met. The organism is clearly specifiable. Organisms for tho most part have clearly designated states which either are or are not maintained. In most cases therefore it is possible to specify with a high degree of accuracy certain components of the organism and its various states. "In consequence, since the system and the state can be clearly defined in biology, it is intelligible to ask, and seek an answer by way of experimental enquiry,. whether and by what mechanisms, System S is maintained in State G". [FROM INTRODUCTION

Transnational Legal Order Through Rule of Law? Appraising the United Nations Security Council, 1990-2022

Utilizing the theoretical framework of transnational legal orders (TLOs), this article treats two master questions in global governance: what are the limits to the power of the UN Security Council? Can norms of rule-of-law constrain UNSC powers? First, we outline a research design with emphasis on its documentary and unique internal empirical sources. Second, we sketch an interpretive narrative of UNSC engagement from the early 1990s to the present with ROL in three areas of UNSC action: peacekeeping, sanctions, and force. Third, we offer a new conceptual approach by proposing that ROL in the UNSC manifests itself in three dimensions: discourse; procedure (or rules); and structures. These dimensions come into play both internally, within the UNSC itself, and externally, to ROL institution-building in and between states, as well as in post-conflict zones, with a rather gray area between (e.g., when the UN peacekeeping missions are themselves subject to ROL oversight for the behavior of their personnel). Fourth, we examine the emergence of micro-TLOs under construction within the UNSC itself. We conclude with reflections on the potential for empowering elected members of the UNSC and weaker states in the UN to press ROL norms on the UNSC as a springboard for ROL global governance via the UNSC

The Legal Complex

The concept of the legal complex is a new addition to the lexicon of sociology and sociolegal scholarship. As a concept, the legal complex emerged from a series of interdisciplinary collaborations and primary research on the politics of lawyers and judges across the world. The review introduces this new collective actor to the political stage and elaborates its defining elements, morphology, varieties of mobilization, and repertoires of action. This review argues for a complementary methodological strategy for investigation of the politics of the legal complex, the longue dur´ee and ev´´ enements. With respect to political liberalism, it shows the contexts and resources in which the legal complex thrives, with particular emphasis on civil society, information technology, the rise of constitutionalism, and international circumstances. The essay argues, however, that the explanatory reach of this concept can extend to any policymaking issues, national or supranational, that involve law, legal institutions, and legal actors. By adopting the logic of analysis developed in this review, not only do previously discrete areas of work on lawyers, judges, or prosecutors come into creative tension, but a lively politics of the legal complex will refine and extend theory across the landscape of law and society research

Anti-money laundering: an inquiry into a disciplinary transnational legal order

This Article enquires into the case of one of the most comprehensive, far-reaching, most deeply penetrating, and most punitive of TLOs: antimoney laundering. Drawing on an intensive study at a moment when its governing norms and methodologies of implementation were undergoing revision and expansion, as well as on observation and participation in AML/CFT activities over three decades, the Article brings rich empirical evidence to bear on two theoretical issues. First, despite its seemingly successful institutionalization, the AML TLO exhibits many deficiencies and imposes extensive costs on the private and public sectors, and harms upon the public. Why doesn’t it fail? Second, the pervasiveness and penetration of the AML TLO indicates it may constitute a particular species of “disciplinary” TLOs. To address these issues, the Article, first, briefly sketches the thirty-year development and workings of the AML TLO; second, considers its benefits, costs, deficiencies and harms; third, confronts the puzzle of its persistence; and, fourth, concludes by arguing that the AML TLO may be distinctive insofar as (1) it has a foundational assumption of recalcitrant actors who must be monitored to reduce social harms which (2) legitimates a pervasive surveillance apparatus that is (3) yoked to punitive criminal institutions and practices which (4) lead to an elaborate repertoire of discipline that (5) has been multiplied to include states, financial institutions (e.g. banks), non-state collective actors such as charities, organized crime families, and individuals such as lawyers, accountants, and everyday participants in their myriads of transactions in an integrated global financial system. Those singular properties may in fact be shared substantially by other TLOs directed at crime. The site of criminal justice thereby encourages a more differentiated understanding of TLOs in 21st century settings