A World of Standards

Abstract

In the modern world, there is no shortage of people who know what is best for others. Self-appointed experts, consultants, and organizations try to convince states, corporations, and individuals that they would be better off if they only followed some specific rules about what to do. These rules are presented as being voluntary and advisory. They are standards, not mandatory directives, and they abound in modern life. Standards may concern what characteristics a telephone should have, how a company should report its financial transactions, how organizations should be managed, how states should treat their citizens, how children should be raised, and so forth. Even organizations as powerful as states and large corporations follow standards on how to organize, which policies to pursue, what kinds of services to provide, or how their products should be designed. Standards enable a higher degree of global order in the modern world than would exist without them. They facilitate coordination and cooperation even among people and organizations that are far apart. The book states that standardization is a much neglected area of social science — an area that has by no means received the attention it deserves in view of its importance to society. This book redresses the balance by providing an in-depth examination of a number of aspects of standardization, how it is formed, and what effects it has on the world in which we live.

Regulatory capitalism and the reassertion of the public interest

“…In this case associational bodies (TPS and FPS) require direct marketing companies to avoid telephone and fax solicitations. Standards and systems architecture are also an area where self-regulation is widespread (Brunsson & Jacobsson, 2000;Lessig, 1999). Civil regulatory bodies are widespread in the advertisement field and in effect exist in all countries (e.g., the Irish Advertising Standards Authority, the Italian Istituto dell'Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria and the Dutch Stichting Reclame Code).…”

EPSAS and the Unification of Public Sector Accounting Across Europe

“…Within this schema, accounting practices do not escape the pressures for a standardised world and the mechanisms identified by Brunsson et al (2000) are in evidence in the world of accounting regulation: pressure groups, expert knowledge, arenas of standardisation. (Lapsley, Mussari, & Paulsson, 2009, p. 720) New Public Management (NPM), accrual accounting, IPSAS and EPSAS; Section 3 discusses some theoretical notions about accounting harmonization, standardization, and unification with a view to identify the possible goal of the EPSAS project.…”

Standardization of Work: Co-constructed Practice

“…Today, corporate and public-sector entities are under strong and growing pressure to respond to inherently conflicting concerns: on the one hand, achieving economies of scale through the dissemination of 'best practices' and of standardised routines and procedures; on the other hand, an increasing demand for individualised services and products (Brunsson & Jacobsson, 2000;Bowker & Star, 1999;de Guy & Salaman, 1992). This dilemma is especially acute in the field of service delivery, as Leidner (1993) reminds us, because high-quality services are characterised specifically by the perception that they are not standardised but that they are sensitive to specific customers' needs (Alvesson, 2001).…”