ICE & Institutional "Logics"

​This semester, I am teaching organizational theory. As this week's class has focused on institutional logics and ways organizations "behave," I have remained committed to connecting what we are learning in the classroom to the real life situations in the world (and what world it's been). So it’s no surprise, given everything that’s been going on, to center this week's "case study" on ICE as the related protests.

To be clear, I think it’s important for me to emphasize that I am not an immigration expert, so many of these things are histories I also had to learn myself. But when we think about organizational logics, nothing is decontextualized. So part of what I try to do with my teaching, as we think about ICE, is the longer arc of history, as well as underlying institutional logics that create the type of harmful and violent rationale that ensures ICE continues what it does, at the detriment of thousands.

And, as part of the class was focused also on not only examining institutional logics, but competing or resistant logics, we concluded by talking about other ways and other logics that we can use to resent the type of collective care, mutual aid, and community organizing that so central to the act of resistance, we are seeing.

I share these slides, especially for my fellow educators who might be wondering how can I bring this up in class and weave it in~ so hoping that folks are able to something out of this. Also for context, I always start class with a quote for some "food for thought" and a centering exercise so I kept those in there.