provide meaningful feedback, show an understanding of the theory they chose for their paper by explaining how they applied it. Offer feedback including revision suggestions or strengths.
The theory
I have chosen to use the theory of rationalization to assess the shift in the ways in which summer camps have changed over time. I am going to assess the theory of rationalization and relate it to the changes in which summer camps have made in the recent decade, and also imply those changes to the shift they have had to make with Covid19. Rationalization is what attempts to explain or justify a certain logic, and from the business standpoint, it strives to justify ways to make a business more efficient and profit driven. “Rationalization is the organization of social life based on mean-ends calculations and efficiency; according to Max Weber, modernity is characterized by increasing rationalization, and such rationalization leads to an overall disenchantment of the world. Living in a modern society based on rational rules, there comes a protocol for the way structured programs, organizations, groups etc run and function” (P. 223 Longhofer & Winchester, 2016). The protocol and rationale changes when there is a shift in structure of certain groups and society in general. What is deemed as rational does though change over time. It changes through science, money, capitalism etc. Rationalization is the formal rules, regulations, and procedures that societies evolve to when there is advancements in science, knowledge, shift in the economy, etc (P. 222 Phillips & Webber, 2020)
Part of what also drives rationalization is capitalism and competition amongst societies in their shift to compete and keep up with the ongoing changes. The changes are normally quite competitive, and push people to base what they believe to be rational off of the rationalization of those around them. Rationalization can be driven by beliefs, science, religion, finances, etc. It is what drives us to make everyday decisions and backs up our reasoning behind the choices we make in our daily lives (Phillips & Webber, 2020). Weber saw that societies were driven by the force to maximize profit, and that rationalization is responsible for many of the changes in advancements, and ways in which different groups in society function. A way that may have been seen as rational
for a summer camp to run decades, ago could seem far from rational today. The ways in which we shift even something like summer camps to not be the same today as they were a decade ago is driven by rationalization as I am going to explain and analyze. The changes are driven by advancements in science, knowledge of the best and most effective ways to run camps, unsaid rules, best discovered practices, etc. Rationalization could be the division and coordination of activities amongst a group which can hands down apply to how summer camps are run. (Gann et al., 2013).
Max Weber established two different types of rationalization. Both of which can be applied to how summer camps have evolved and altered their ways of running over the years, along with how they have adjusted the ways in which they run this summer and with Covid19. The two forms of rationalization that Weber termed are instrumental rationality, and value rationality. As Weber discussed, our lives become more and more organized by the most efficient ways to do things and get things done. That has led to greater consistency and control over groups, organizations, business, and even summer camps as it can be applied to and that I am going to discuss in this paper ( P.222 Longhofer & Winchester, 2016). I will be exploring the history of summer camps and how they have changed over the decades and use rationalization to justify those changes. I will also tie my research back the general changes in summer camps over the last decade to the changes made this year due to Covid19.
Application
Over the last decade many summer camps have grown into brands and are in some sense McDonaldized. Many have camps running in various states and even countries, sell their own gear, equipment, and one can know what activities to expect out of the camp in any location they were to do it in. Now how does this relate to rationalization you may ask? As I previously discussed, a lot of rationalization comes from profit, economic shift, and efficiency being the most predominant reasons a summer camp might shift from only hosting 100 kids each summer in one state to over 1,000 kids in five states (Ginsberg et al., 2020). Looking at things scientifically and realizing that camps should be less gender specific, and offer activities to both boys and girls etc is a very noticeable change in summer camps in the recent decade. What I found interesting in an article about summer camp changing trends, is that years ago camps were just more for fun and with a lot of games, and today they are far more learning focused. Weber would probably say that is because parents’ rational choice is to better their child’s knowledge and keep their brains stimulated and challenged during the summer (Gann et al., 2013). Even the rationalization of parents’ thinking has changed over the last decade.
Another look at this, is that the summer camp world is far more competitive today then it ever was. Today there are a handful of camps for specific activities, and it becomes a tough competition for summer camps against one another and what they have to offer. The pressure has changed many camp professionals to rethink the ways they run and how they draw kiddos and families to sign up. When camps decide what they offer, they have to use a form of rationalization to address what their customers want out of the camps. That in itself has shifted over the last decade. Parents used to just send their kids to summer camps to run around and be crazy, and now they send their kids to them to learn new things such as robotics, outdoor activities, art etc. A goal now for most camps that did not exist years ago is the need to increase PR and have a strong financial standing. No small summer camps can make it by these days and that is also caused by capitalism. Summer camps are competing to sell families to sign their kids up for specific camps. The rationalization behind what activities camps offer, is based on what activities families want their kids to participate in. That is largely based on location, lifestyle of those in the area of the camp etc. In relation to rationalization, it is quite rational to offer a mountain biking, or paddle boarding camp in an outdoor oriented area for kiddos. And may be irrational to offer a hiking camp for kids that live in a city. But in some sense camps have to make that rational choice because some camps may see it as rational to offer activities to kids in areas that they might not get to experience or learn in their daily life and environment.
Another big shift has been that summer camps are less gender specific. That can tie back to rationalization in the sense that today it might even be seen as offensive, and extremely irrational to offer a camp that is gender specific. As I mentioned what is deemed as rational changes over time (Mapping field camp’s past and present: Exploring a mainstay of geoscience education 2015). A decade ago it may have seemed irrational to have boys and girls together in summer camps participating in the same activities. Now that has shifted and it would be irrational to keep genders separate in most activities that summer camps offer. That is a way in which rationalization has shifted in the summer camp world and beyond.
Another aspect that Max Weber would see in rationalization is the ways in which summer camps run can be looked at from the business standpoint. As summer camps have become more profit driven, that has also created a huge way in which summer camps have changed. Max Weber would stand by the fact that so many summer camps in the recent decade are profit driven. They do what they can serve the most kids, pay the least amount of staff, offer the most amount of programs, and gain the most amount of profit (Longhofer & Winchester, 2016). In order for them to expand their growth financially, they have to expand what programs they offer. As each year is profit driven, from that, comes changes in what is offered based on previous years. Changing what programs a mainstay of geoscience education 2015). A decade ago it may have seemed irrational to have boys and girls together in summer camps participating in the same activities. Now that has shifted and it would be irrational to keep genders separate in most activities that summer camps offer. That is a way in which rationalization has shifted in the summer camp world and beyond.
Another aspect that Max Weber would see in rationalization is the ways in which summer camps run can be looked at from the business standpoint. As summer camps have become more profit driven, that has also created a huge way in which summer camps have changed. Max Weber would stand by the fact that so many summer camps in the recent decade are profit driven. They do what they can serve the most kids, pay the least amount of staff, offer the most amount of programs, and gain the most amount of profit (Longhofer & Winchester, 2016). In order for them to expand their growth financially, they have to expand what programs they offer. As each year is profit driven, from that, comes changes in what is offered based on previous years. Changing what programs they offer, is essential to how they succeeded financially each year. It would be irrational to offer a camp that no one signed up for for various years. So camps must continue to change what they offer based on the ongoing changes in what families want the camps to offer. With the changes in society and what people want to see from summer camps, causes summer camps to have to make rational changes each year. Yearly, big summer camps expect to continue to gain profit from their experiences and learning what worked or what did not work from the year prior. Then they make adjustments and expect to gain profit from the adjustments made to their programs.
Covid19 has affected summer camps this summer. When doing research, I found that many summer camps may not survive and have had to make financially tough decisions based on state mandated orders and the uncertainty of Covid19. From research, I found that all summer camps with a profit of less than $2 million of funding will most likely not make it, not being able to run programs this summer (www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/summer-day-camp-program).
There are over 14,000 camp organizations in the United States in the over 18 Billion dollar industry. Stand alone camps that only base their profit off of summer programs and do not run year round as most do will struggle the most. As Weber discussed the mean-ends calculations and efficiency; he would see that being forced to actually cancel summer camps is not rational when the camp is what brings in the majority of the profit. Max Weber would probably see that camps would have to make adjustments and form new ways to run with state mandated rules around Covid19. That they would have to find ways to run camps in order to survive (Ginsberg et al., 2020).
Testing the theory
From my experience working in various summer camps over the years, and currently working for one during the pandemic, I have seen how rationalization really ties into how summer camps run and change over periods of time. From my first summer in working for a summer camp through a parks and recreation program, I saw how programs that they offered were just general and less specific where kiddos got to do a variety of crafts, sports, games etc, and that far less parents signed up their kids for the program compared to the other two summer camps I have held positions for that offered more specific activities. For the second parks and recreation program that I worked for two summers in a row, I have seen how rationalization could be applied to the changes that they have made in the programs they offered based on what people want to be offered from the camps. The first summer we did outdoor themed camps, craft specific, sport specific, half day camps for kids under 5 etc. When helping them plan for the following summer that I was going to work for them I helped plan different camps, and was part of the discussion of what worked and what did not. I overheard them discuss profit, and find ways to maximize it. The following summer there was a huge increase in kiddos registered for programs that they offered. Rationalization really drives these camps, and I have seen it first hand. The camp directors I have worked with have had to look into ongoing changes in order to keep up with the summer camp industry. Being driven by profit, I have also seen how myself and three other staff were the only ones hired to work all summer and run all of the camps. That helps the Parks and Recreation gain profit while paying less staff members to do all of the summer work, while at the same time, not allowing us overtime, and cutting us off right before it so they do not have to pay for it.
In the summer camp that I am currently working in this summer, I have really seen first hand the ways they have worked through making rational choices on how to run. Just like most programs, they base most of their profit off of the camps they run each summer. Year round they have staff that plan each summer’s programs, adjust safety plans, they have a warehouse where they rent and sell gear, and have a large mix of year round and seasonal staff. There would have been no possible way to run any of their traditional programs because of Covid19. They then, profit driven, had to rationalize the best ways to run new camps that could gain them profit, yet abide by state mandated orders around Covid19.
A lot of their decisions of how they were going to run camps came from the rationalization of the scientific knowledge of the spread of Covid19. They decided that they could offer camps from people’s homes where a staff member runs at at home camp in families backyard, and that it was safe to run the mountain bike camps and just lessen the amount of kiddos. They were also going to run some overnight camps (the ones that go deep into the wilderness) if they cut the normal number from 20 to 10 and 1 staff. Another form of their rationalization around Covid19, was to reach out to parents and hear their ideas of what they saw as rational for what camps to run. Because part of profit gain would be to know what parents would be willing and feel safe enrolling their kids in. With that they also decided to offer online camps which would be led by an instructor via zoom.
I do not blame the summer camp for coming up with this idea. It is a form of rationalization and having to meet the needs of parents and kids. In recent weeks I have been helping answer emails from parents in which there has been thousands of emails in regards to the programs we are offering, wanting to cancel their kids from being in the still running camps because they feared Covid19, and or the total opposite and being upset that our camps were full and wishing we had more spots to offer. Assessing their reasoning in the emails which hands down relates to parents personal rationalization has been very interesting. Some parents were outraged that we allowed camps at all to still run, while others were angry that we only allowed camps of small numbers. Those who feared allowing their kids to be in the camps because of Covid19 often said that there were people of high risk in their family, or that the child itself was high risk. Everyone, in some way of some sort has their own form of rationalization and that can come from science, knowledge, beliefs etc.
But still, on a profit driven perspective the camp I am working for is losing a lot of money. They are having cut basically all of the programs that they normally run which would draw thousands of kids each year. While at the same time still needing a decent amount of staff to run the new programs this summer. They still have to pay their rents, and yearly staff while only receiving about half the profit that they normally do each summer. They are also having to refund so many parents from the camps that they cannot run that they initially signed up for before the pandemic, or simply because the parent does not want their kid in the camp they are registered for because of Covid19. In a profit driven world, the camp decided that in order to not be at a complete financial loss, that for any form of cancellation that parents could either keep 100% of the amount they paid on their account for future camps until 2023, or they could receive an 80% cash refund. As many parents who enroll their kids in this camp are quite well off, opted to keep their credit on their account. Even for the parents that wanted the cash refund, the 20% from each 80% the camp gets to keep which helps them from being at a total loss. So much rationalization behind that decision as it is hard to not fully refund parents, but they would not survive without doing it. (Summer Updates 2020).
With that though, they have made the hard call to up the price of the camps and what is offered in order to survive this summer and still pay all staff a living wage. Other summer camps have had to completely cut most staff members and only keep their few year round employees to take on roles that would normally be filled by seasonal staff. As the program that I am working for luckily did not have to do that, from my research, that has been one of the ways that camps have had to adjust. Max Weber would say that there is an increased need in rationalization for summer camps to calculate what is the best way to get things done, offer programs, and to keep the focus on efficiency and control.
From my research and understanding, if the pandemic would have happened maybe 10 years ago, summer camps would have not struggled as much because they have to adjust what they offer. Camps will continue to have to decide what changes are rational financially, and base their decisions on the needs of campers and parents. The change in what summer camps offer each year, at this rate changes yearly.
Over the last decade Summer camps have had to vastly change to become more specific in what they offer. No longer when one thinks of summer camp does it really mean kids sleeping in cabins and singing campfire songs. That is because of the rationalization of the camps ideas of what will make a successful camp, what parents want, and what science and research best says will be valuable for kids to be enrolled in. Max Weber’s concept of rationalization can be seen both from the changes in summer camps over the last decade and even more so in the changes that many have had to make this summer because of Covid19 (Longhofer & Winchester, 2016).
Bibliography
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