Our Everyday Life - Essay Example

Everyday Life has now been included in the field of sociology and provides interpretations of sociology and an understanding of how scientific knowledge can be influenced by emotions. Various authors are focused on the sociological implications of everyday lives and have analyzed these facts under the discipline of science. Sociology of everyday life has also been referred to as existential sociology. It can also be defined as the study of the experiences that one goes through in his daily life (Stets and Turner 557). Bureaucracy is the hierarchical structure of an organization. Any social organization’s bureaucracy can be divided into leader, administrator and line workers. Leaders are responsible for setting the goal of an organization and they also set out the policy. Administrators lie below the leaders and are people who ensure that the goals set by the leaders are being met. Then come the line workers, they may also be known as producers, these follow the instruction given to them by the administrators in order to reach the goals handed to them by their leaders (Durieux and Stebbins). The purpose of this paper is to analyze an event that took place in my everyday life and to reflect upon it. The theme that I chose is bureaucracy and how it particularly affected that particular incident. It was a Friday evening when I left my college. I was accompanied by my friends and also had my laptop with me. I took a ride back home on the local train. I had to get off the train after two stations and since there weren’t many people on the train so, I kept my laptop on the seat next to me and got busy chatting with my friend. One stop had passed by and some people came in the train. I noticed one of them looked rather suspicious, but did not pay much heed to him. After one stop had passed by, my friend asked me whether I had my laptop with me; I replied by saying yes and looked next to me to make sure that it still where I left it. Upon looking beside me, I found out that I was seated next to an empty space. Apparently, someone had stolen my laptop while I was busy talking to my friend and I made a guess that it could have happened between the station that had passed. I got off the train to find a police station that may have been near the subway; and was lucky to find one a few blocks away. I reported the incident to the person who was on duty at that time. He asked me to fill a form and report the whole incident in detail. Meanwhile, he also asked me if I had suspicions on anyone, I described him about the person that I thought was suspicious. After filling in the form, I asked when would I get the laptop back. They said that I would receive the insurance money. But I argued that I wanted my laptop back since it contained all of my data and pictures. But my argument held no value since it was all in their hands to find it and I felt helpless. At the same time, I noticed another person who was suited and looked like an influential man who came to discuss about something, he was taken in a separate room to discuss his problem and was given special attention. At the end of the day, I left the police station, with no hope of getting my laptop back which contained all of my pictures and stuff but mainly regretting that I had not backed up my stuff. In our everyday life, we encounter many problems that need to be solved by government agencies and organizations that are specifically setup to cater to our problems and to find solutions which are standardized and equal for all. An example of such agencies includes the police force of a country, town or city. However, there is a disadvantage to all of this. Bellah (1996) states that the power to make decisions of an individual is affected by these beureaucratic organizations (Karp, Yoels and Vann 215). According to Weber’s model of Bureaucratic Organizations, there is a division of work among an organization which is a successive division of work. Each level of employees is responsible for certain job to be done. The highest level of employee overlooks those below them and so on (Karp, Yoels and Vann 219). In my incident, I probably met the officer who was at the lower level and was just responsible for reporting an incident and to solve the problem I had told him and maybe if I had met an officer of a higher level, my problem would have been dealt with in a better way. Weber also talks about a principle in his theory, this is known as rationalization which is the implementation of laws and regulations in every part of one’s life and how these applications shape our lives accordingly (Karp, Yoels and Vann 220). These laws and regulations are necessary to be followed and hence I could not act on my own and do as I pleased but had to report to the police by following the laws. The fact that an individual is stripped off of his freedom due to the bureaucratic system which is why he has referred it to as the ‘iron cage’. However, Jay Klagge (1997) contradicts it by saying that it rather seems as a playground, this means that the organizational members dramatize their daily lives and give a pinch of creativity into their lifeless work (Karp, Yoels and Vann 223). Gary Fine (1996) says that every organization has a certain culture within itself which depends on the work that is being carried out within the workplace (Karp, Yoels and Vann 225). The bureaucracies do not have a mind of their own and rather work by what is being instructed to them by their leaders (Karp, Yoels and Vann 226). The State is responsible for setting out the rules that decide as to how the public serving organizations work. The state is usually governed by the upper class people or the ruling political institutions (Brock, Thomas and Raby). Private property is something that we have bought for ourselves, customized it according to our needs and is used by us mostly (Macpherson). Once we have purchased something, we think that we own it and that it is going to be with us forever. However, we remain uncertain of all the things that could happen to our things and that nothing can ensure us the security for our personal possessions (Hicks). The most dominating part of a society is its bureaucratic part and mostly there is a constant war between the bureaucracy and the normal public. This may be because the general public doesn’t prefer to be dominated by a ruling organization and to face this organization whenever they are faced with a problem. It is rather inconvenient to report the incident to a police and then to find no solution for the problem, rather being told that I will get insurance. This bureaucracy was invented to give the upper hand to the general public and these incidents make us realize how opposite of the original concept the bureaucratic system follows. According to Weber, people who belonged to the upper class also had a status which is an indication of respect in society (Hicks, 113). This was also seen in my incident wherein, the person who was well dressed and looked influential was dealt well and a common middle class person was dealt in a regular way. Bureaucratic organizations are responsible to keep check and balance of the laws and orders of a country. However, these bureaucratic organizations would have been better if they could act on their own and not follow the orders given to them by the upper level workers of a hierarchy. People should also be prepared to face any consequences and should learn that there is hardly any incident that doesn’t require you to face these bureaucrats. These bureaucrats are there to solve our problems and to help us. I also learnt that with class comes power, the higher class a person belongs to, the better are his chances of being dealt with in public, whereas no special treatment is given to a person belonging to middle or lower class. And lastly and most importantly I learnt a lesson from my incident that I should never forget to backup my data that may hold importance to me. Works Cited Stets, Jan E, and Jonathan H Turner. Handbook Of The Sociology Of Emotions: Volume II. Dordrecht: Springer, 2014. Print. Durieux, Mark B, and Robert A Stebbins. Social Entrepreneurship For Dummies. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley Pub., 2010. Print. Karp, David Allen, William C Yoels, and Barbara H Vann. Sociology In Everyday Life. Long Grove, Ill: Waveland Press, 2004. Print. Brock, Deborah R, Mark P Thomas, and Rebecca Raby. Power And Everyday Practices. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2012. Print. Macpherson, C. B. Property, Mainstream And Critical Positions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978. Print. Hicks, John. A Theory Of Economic History. London: Oxford University Press, 1969. Print. Read More