@article{THESIS,
      recid = {11318},
      author = {Conner, Viki},
      title = {Myths and Markets: The Emergence of the Public Policy  Program at the University of Chicago},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {M.A.},
      address = {2020-08},
      number = {THESIS},
      abstract = {This thesis details the origins of the Committee on Public  Policy Studies (the present-day Harris School of Public  Policy) at the University of Chicago from 1969 to 1974 as a  case study in organizational emergence. Combining  historical methods with a processual sociological approach,  I interrogate the social processes that led to the  organizational decision to move forward with the program  despite limited funding and tepid faculty support owing to  concerns that it challenged the University’s institutional  identity and myths. By examining the intra-organizational  dynamics of a university that stood at odds with the  inter-organizational market pressures of the time, I offer  a counterpoint to the conventional institutionalist  explanation for the emergence of policy schools and argue  that the Chicago decision reflected a great gamble –  symbolically and financially – opened up by the flux of  events during a time of great uncertainty in higher  education. Filling a critical gap in the University of  Chicago’s historiography, I demonstrate how the new policy  program ultimately resulted in the replication of the  University’s intellectual tradition while at the same time  introducing the possibility for organizational  transformation by synthesizing the paradoxical logics of  its myths with the market. In doing so, this thesis serves  as both a cautionary tale about the power of myths and a  hopeful tale about the possibilities for new markets for  contemporary universities as they face, once again,  extraordinary financial challenges and social unrest.  },
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/11318},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.11318},
}