Freudenburg Beyond Borders: Recreancy, Atrophy of Vigilance, Bureaucratic Slippage, and the Tragedy of 9/11

Abstract

In this chapter, I suggest three conceptual tools developed by William R. Freudenburg and colleagues that characterize the failure of institutions to carry out their duties – recreancy, atrophy of vigilance, and bureaucratic slippage – are of use beyond environmental sociology in the framing of the September 11, 2001 disaster. Using testimony and findings from primary materials such as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Joint Inquiry hearings and report (2002, 2004a, 2004b) and the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (2004) alongside insider accounts, I discuss how Freudenburg’s tools have the potential to theorize institutional failures that occur in national security decision making. I also suggest these tools may be of particular interest to the U.S. intelligence community in its own investigation of various types of risk and failures.

Citation

Maret, S. (2013), "Freudenburg Beyond Borders: Recreancy, Atrophy of Vigilance, Bureaucratic Slippage, and the Tragedy of 9/11", William R. Freudenburg, A Life in Social Research (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 201-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2013)0000021013