essay
Homespun bureaucracy: a case study in organizational evolution
Amish struggle with modernity • Hanover, Nh • Published In 1994 • Pages: 198-213, 274-275
By: Olshan, Marc Alan.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
The conspicuous absence of formal organizations signals one of the remarkable ways in which the Amish have remained a separate people. Missing from their society are the centralized structures, agencies, professional bureaucrats, and policy manuals which typify many religious communities. The Amish struggle with modernity has, however, produced an embryonic form of what Marc A. Olshan calls a homespun bureaucracy. In this article he suggest that the Amish paradoxically were forced by the growing encroachment of the state to develop their own bureaucratic forms -- the Old Order Amish Steering Committee -- in order to remain a separate people (p. 199).
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Administrative agencies
- Theoretical orientation in research and its results
- Religious denominations
- Congregations
- Recruitment and training
- Military organization
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Amish
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2009
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Sociologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle; 2007
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1809-1992
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Marc A. Olshan
- For bibliographical references see document 20: [Kraybill and Olshan]
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 94013668
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Amish