Organized Uncertainty

`In Organized Uncertainty, Power has repeated the feat of The Audit Society: once again, this is a book which has an importance way beyond its apparent substantive concerns. Any serious study of regulation, or of the governance of organizations, will have to come to terms with Power's analysis: we will either have to incorporate him into our work, or find some way to demolish him.' Public Administration `This is a book which has an importance way beyond its apparent substantive concerns. Any serious study of regulation, or of the governance of organizations, will have to come to terms with Power's analysis.' Michael Moran, Public Administration Vol. 86 `Power has a knack for critically writing about the latest accounting trends in an intelligent, accessible and interesting way... Organized Uncertainty extends the audit society thesis by challenging the notion of risk management and questioning whether uncertainty can ever be organized.' Organization `...iconoclastic and illuminating...' Journal of Public Policy `Review from previous edition Michael Power's description and analysis of the rise of the risk management movement is striking and impressive. Arising worldwide, in the current neo-liberal period, the movement demands great managerial expansion. Organizations everywhere are now to track and manage all sorts of uncertainties - external, internal and in their own operations - as risks to be calculated. Most innovatively, Power shows that the core cultural pressures are less to reduce risks than to demonstrate accountability for them. Thus the reputable organization, as an effective actor, must show that it has proper risk management processes, not that these reduce risks.' John Meyer, Professor of Sociology, Stanford University `Power's The Audit Society influentially challenged the concerns and fetishes of the 1990s. His fine new book will likewise provoke intense debate on how the societies of the new century conceive and manage risk.' Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh; author of An Engine, Not A Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets `Power provides a fascinating and important insight into the emergent world of risk management. Organized Uncertainty analyses the origins and function of new designs for practice, and probes below the surface of a risk management 'explosion' to provide a challenging account of its role in shaping new forms of managerial and regulatory accountability.' Anthony Hopwood, Formerly Dean of the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford `Power has taken bold first steps in theorizing a new area of research. This is a book of blueprints to be pondered and drawn on by a wide range of scholars seeking to understand how risk, opportunity and governance are conceived of and achieved in the contemporary era.' Economy and Society