These writing assignments are meant to help you think about the readings and to prepare you for class discussions. For that reason, when you write a response it is important that you give your opinions and that you relate your thoughts to the reading. Remember that these are exam questions and that they are graded as such. You ought to write them as though you are writing questions on a midterm or a final exam.

Respond to one of the following questions by writing a response on the class Discussion Board on Blackboard at least one hour before class on the date the question is listed. Put your name in the text of the question and give the question number as listed below. Without these I can't tell who wrote the question or what you are responding to. You then have until Midnight on the following Sunday of that week to revise your response if you wish to do so and to submit it for grading. To submit your responses, send them via email to milofsky@bucknell.edu.

Your final version of this question is due by midnight, Sunday, December 6.

26-1 Explain how the engineering and enlightenment aproaches to social change work to mutually reinforce each other.

26-2 Over the years, sociologists have criticized moral theories of professions and institutions because we cannot objectively tell whether morality is present, is being applied, or is effective. What response to this critique is given in Pragmatic Liberalism?

26-3 What does it mean to say that organizations are selfish? In the view of Pragmatic Liberalism what is required if institutions are to overcome organizational selfishness?

26-4This chapter of Pragmatic Liberalism starts with a discussion of the difficulty of linking macro explanations of society with micro explanations. An example of a micro explanation was provided in the last chapter, where we talked about how morality is generated in institutions by the nature and natural processes of their work. How in this chapter is a macro-theory of moral social action developed based on the previous discussion of institutions?

26-5 We have talked about how the conflict role pressures in institutions creates ambiguity and how staff respond to ambiguitis that they see as regularities in their work environments by creating and following norms and values. You have two tasks in this answer. First give two or three examples of how this happens in the Belkin article and then tell how clashes between different hospital roles are resolved. In giving your answer, talk about whether the workers are engaged in moral action and whether the resolutions of conflicts seem to be moral to you.