Workgroup 1
Q&A 1 - Explain what the paradox of consequences is about and how this is linked to the
concept of bureaucracy
The paradox of consequences is: “The tendency for the means chosen to achieve ends in social life to
undermine or defeat those ends.”
Bureaucracy: predictability and safeguard against arbitrariness equal efficiency
• Bureaucracy: efficient yes, but morally just?
• Bureaucracy danger: means more important than ends
• Upholding rules more important, than judgment on justness (fairness, moral judgment ends, WO2)
• Substantive values replaced with instrumental values
• POC points to unintended consequences. Capitalism and rationalization (calculation, replaced
religious believes (Loss of magic / die Entzauberung der Welt)
Realists believe that social reality exists independently of how people observe and make sense of
it. They do research and the outcomes of that research become a theory. Example: Taylor
Non-realists think further than that. They believe that there is not one social reality. People and
interaction construct a social world whit which we live and interact. Example: Maslow
Critical realism Focusing on theories, causal powers and generative mechanisms. Can be
considered as looking top-down to individuals, or more on a macro level, on how the social world
works.
Pragmatic realism Does not focus on mechanisms that seem to operate below the surface of the
social world. Social reality is what people have to come to terms within order to cope in the world.
This is done not by using causal mechanisms or powers, but by staying close to the individual and
seeing from their point of view (more micro/bottom up).
Q&A 1 - Explain what the paradox of consequences is about and how this is linked to the
concept of bureaucracy
The paradox of consequences is: “The tendency for the means chosen to achieve ends in social life to
undermine or defeat those ends.”
Bureaucracy: predictability and safeguard against arbitrariness equal efficiency
• Bureaucracy: efficient yes, but morally just?
• Bureaucracy danger: means more important than ends
• Upholding rules more important, than judgment on justness (fairness, moral judgment ends, WO2)
• Substantive values replaced with instrumental values
• POC points to unintended consequences. Capitalism and rationalization (calculation, replaced
religious believes (Loss of magic / die Entzauberung der Welt)
Realists believe that social reality exists independently of how people observe and make sense of
it. They do research and the outcomes of that research become a theory. Example: Taylor
Non-realists think further than that. They believe that there is not one social reality. People and
interaction construct a social world whit which we live and interact. Example: Maslow
Critical realism Focusing on theories, causal powers and generative mechanisms. Can be
considered as looking top-down to individuals, or more on a macro level, on how the social world
works.
Pragmatic realism Does not focus on mechanisms that seem to operate below the surface of the
social world. Social reality is what people have to come to terms within order to cope in the world.
This is done not by using causal mechanisms or powers, but by staying close to the individual and
seeing from their point of view (more micro/bottom up).
