contemporary Trajectories in Institutional
theory
Soc. 294 John Mohr
Office Hours: Thurs. 1:00-3:00 PM
Course Description:
Twenty-five
years ago the organizational sociology community was rocked by the appearance
of a new style of theorizing, heralded by the classic American Journal of
Sociology article by
John Meyer and Brian Rowan ÒInstitutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and
Ceremony.Ó What followed was the
rapid rise and successful institutionalization of a style of work which led to
a thorough overhaul of theorizing about organizations and society, away from a
rational actor, resource driven model toward a radical new cultural approach to
understanding social organization.
The end result of this early phase of development (marked by the
publication of the Powell and DiMaggio edited volume The New
institutionalism in Organizational Analysis in 1991) was a style of research which took as its goal the
description and explanation of recognizable clusters of activity known as
social institutions. Theoretically, the work follows the mandates of social
theorists who call for an analysis that integrates the duality of agency and
structure, and thus, presupposes an integration of the cultural and the
social.
Having
started in what at the time seemed to be the most unlikely of sociological
venues, the new institutionalists have progressively worked toward
de-stabilizing if not actively overturning many of the old shibboleths of
mainstream sociology and are leading the charge toward a new culture-centered
paradigm in American sociology.
One of the most interesting features of this project is that it has become
a site Ñ perhaps the key site Ñ in which the formalist methodologies of
mainstream American sociology are running up against the interpretative
hermeneutic methodologies of the humanities.
The
goal of this seminar is twofold.
First, we will be looking to map out the various alternative futures of
institutional theory. This means
that we will try to organize our readings and discussions around what would
appear to be the major contenders for the Ònext big moveÓ in institutional
research. I have broken these down
into three general categories that I call features of the self, features of the
text and features of the social.
The first reflects the move back to a more thorough understanding of the
effect of physical subjectivity, from the workings of the brain, to the
machinations of the body located in physical, material, practical space. The second has to do with the turn
toward the humanities and the tools that humanists have developed over the
years for describing, explaining, and accounting for the textual character of
meanings. This includes a renewed
focus on the study of genres, of rhetoric, and of narratives that serve to
organize meaning. The third concerns
the ways in which broader aggregations of agents and meanings are structured in
the world. Here we will look in
particular at research directed toward understanding the character of
organizational fields and also the work coming out of European studies of
science described as Òactor-network theory.Ó Each of these represents a place where new scholarship is
turning to reap innovative insights and styles of approach for new research
projects.
Second,
the focus of the seminar is on the research process itself. Though this is not strictly speaking a
course on methods, our focus will nonetheless be turned toward how these ideas
are being grounded in research practice.
How do you do these things as a practicing research scholar? The procedure we will follow is to read
recent (usually very recent) empirical work on these topics with an eye to
asking the question, how have scholars operationalized these kind of
theoretical constructs. What kind
of data does one look for? How
does one collect these kind of data?
What sort of analysis is appropriate?
Course Requirements:
No prior course work in
sociology is required. A reader is
available at Grafikart (6550 Pardall Road) in Isla Vista (Phone # 968-3575;
email: info@grafikart.com).
Seminar participants will be asked to take turns in reporting to the group on
one recommended reading each week.
You will also be asked to write a paper based on course readings and
your own research project.
Week 1 (April 2). Course Introduction.
Some
Background Reading:
DiMaggio, Paul J. and Walter W. Powell. 1991.
"Introduction." Pp. 1-38 in The New Institutionalism in
Organizational Analysis edited by
Walter W. Powell and Paul DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Marc
Ventresca and John W. Mohr. 2002
ÒArchival Research Methods.Ó Pp. 805-828 in Companion to Organizations, edited by Joel Baum. Blackwell.
Zald,
Mayer N. 1996. "More Fragmentation?
Unfinished Business in Linking the Social Sciences and the
Humanities." Administrative Science Quarterly , 41:251-261.
New
Directions #1: Features of the
Self
Week 2
(April 9). Cognition
and Culture: New Contributions of Cognitive Science to the Empirical Analysis
of Culture
DiMaggio,
Paul J. 1997. Culture and Cognition. Annual Review of Sociology 23: 263-87.
Porac,
Joseph F., Howard Thomas, Fiona Wilson, Douglas Paton and Alaina Kanfer. 1995.
"Rivalry and the Industry Model of Scottish Knitwear Producers." Administrative
Science Quarterly 40:203-227.
Further Reading:
Ruef,
Martin. 1999. "Social Ontology and the Dynamics of Organizational
Forms: Creating Market Actors in
the Healthcare Field, 1966-1994." Social Forces 77(4):1403-1432.
Lakoff,
George and Mark Johnson. 1999. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind
and its Challenge to Western Thought.
New York: Basic Books. (see Chp. 25 for summary of argument).
Porac,
Joseph F. 2002. "Interorganizational Cognition and Interpretation."
Forthcoming in Companion to Organizations. Edited by Joel A. C. Baum. Blackwell Publishers.
Porac,
Joseph and Howard Thomas. 1990. "Taxanomic Mental Models in Competitor
Definition." Academy of Management Review 15:224-240.
Porac,
Joseph, Howard Thomas, and C. Badden-Fuller. 1989. "Competitive Groups as
Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers." Journal
of Management Studies 26:397-415.
Anand, N. and Richard A. Peterson. 2000. "When Market Information Constitutes Fields: Sensemaking of Markets in the Commercial Music Industry." Organization Science 11(3):270-284.
Week 3 (April 16). An Alternative Cognitive Theory: The Epistemologies of Enacted Practice
Cook,
Scott D. N. and John Seely Brown. 1999. "Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance Between
Organizational Knowledge and Organizational Knowing." Organization Science 10:381-400.
Hutchins,
Edwin. 1995. Cognition in the Wild.
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press. (chapter 8 & 9).
Further
Reading:
Bourdieu,
Pierre. 1990. The Logic of Practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Week 4 (April 23). Analyzing Practices: The Study of Grammars of Action
Pentland,
Brian.T. and Henry H. Rueter. 1994.
ÒOrganizational Routines as Grammars of Action,Ó Administrative Science Quarterly, 39 (3):484-510.
Pentland,
Brian.T. 1999. ÒOrganizations as
Networks of Action.Ó In Joel Baum
and Bill McKelvey (eds.) Variations in Organization Science: In Honor of
Donald T. Campbell. Newbury Park,
CA: Sage Publications.
Further Reading:
Padgett, J. F., and
Ansell, C.K.: ÒRobust Action and
the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434,Ó American Journal of Sociology, 98(6) (1993):1259-1319.
New
Directions #2: Features of the
Text
Week 5 (April 30). Studying Genre
Orlikowski, Wanda J.
and JoAnneYates. 1994. ÒGenre Repertoire:
The Structuring of Communicative Practices in Organizations.Ó Administrative Science Quarterly, 39(4): 541-574.
Yates,
JoAnne, Wanda J. Orlikowski and Kazuo Okamura. 1999. "Explicit and
Implicit Structuring of Genres in Electronic Communication: Reinforcement and Change in Social
Interaction." Organization Science 10(1):83-103.
Further
Reading:
Bakhtin,
M. M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination.
Austin: University of Texas Press. (See especially ÒForms of Time and of
the Chronotope in the NovelÓ).
Yates,
JoAnne and Wanda J. Orlikowski. 1992. "Genres of Organizational
Communication: A Structurational
Approach to Studying Communication and Media." The Academy of
Management Review 17(2):299-326.
Yates,
JoAnne. 1989. Control through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management.Ó Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins
University Press.
Week 6 (May 7). Studying Rhetoric (session with guest author Ñ Charles Bazerman, Gervirtz School of Education, UCSB).
Bazerman, Charles (2002). "The Production of
Information for Genred Activity Spaces:
Informational Motives and Consequences of the Environmental Impact Statement." Manuscript.
Bazerman,
Charles (2001). "Nuclear Information: One Rhetorical Moment in the
Construction of the Information Age." Written Communication 18:3.
Bazerman,
Charles (1999). The Languages of Edison's Light: Rhetorical Agency in the
Material Production of Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (Selected
chapter).
Further Reading:
Bazerman,
Charles. 1988. Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the
Experimental Article in Science.
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Bazerman,
Charles. 1998. "The Rhetoric of Technology." Journal of Business
and Technical Communication 12(3):
381-387.
Bazerman,
Charles. 1997. "Discursively Structured Activities." Mind, Culture
and Activity 4:4 (1997): 296-308.
Bazerman,
Charles. 1994. "Systems of Genre and the Enactment of Social
Intentions" Rethinking Genre.
Ed. A. Freedman and P. Medway. Taylor & Francis: 79-101.
Week 7 (May
14). Studying
Narrative
Pentland,
Brian T. 1999. ÒBuilding Process
Theory from Narrative: From
Description to Explanation,Ó Academy
of Management Journal, 24(4):711-724.
Bearman Peter S. and Katherine Stovel. 2000.
ÒBecoming a Nazi: A Model for Narrative Networks.Ó Poetics 27(2-3):69-90.
Further Reading:
Bearman,
Peter S., Robert Faris, and James Moody. 1999. ÒBlocking the Future: New Solutions for Old Problems in
Historical Social Science. Social Science History 23(4): 501-534.
Propp,
V. 1968. Morphology of the Folktale.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
Albert,
Stuart. 1995. "Towards a Theory of Timing: An Archival Study of Timing Decisions in the Persian Gulf
War." Research in Organizational Behavior 17:1-70.
Abbott, Andrew. 1995. "Sequence Analysis: New Methods for Old Ideas." Annual Review of Sociology 21:93-113.
New
Directions #3: Features of the
Social
Weeks 8
(May 21). How
Culture Creates Fields (and vice-versa) (session with guest author Ñ Marc
Ventresca, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University).
Ventresca,
Marc and Rodney Lacey. 2001. "Origins and Activities of Industry
Entrepreneurs in the Formation of the U.S. Online Database Industry,
1969-1982. Forthcoming in The
Entrepreneurial Dynamic edited by
C. Schoonhoven and E. Romanelli.
McDonough,
Patricia M., Marc Ventresca and Charles Outcalt. 2000. "Field of
Dreams: Organization Field
Approaches to Understanding the Transformation of College Access, 1965-1995.
Pp. 371-405 in Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, edited by J.C. Smart and W. G. Tierney. New York:
Agathon Press.
Further
Reading:
Andrew
J. Hoffman and Marc J. Ventresca (eds).
2001. Organizations, Policy, and the Natural Environment. In press,
Stanford University Press.
Joseph Porac and Marc J. Ventresca (eds). 2002. Constructing Industries and Markets. In press. Elsevier.
Weeks 9
(May 28). Actor-Network Theory
Law,
John. 1999. ÒTopology and the Naming of Complexity.Ó In Actor Network Theory
and After, edited by John Law and
John Hassard. Blackwell.
Bijker, Wiebe. 1995. ÒKing of the Road: The Social Construction of the Safety Bicycle.Ó Pp. 19-100 in Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Further
Reading:
Latour,
Bruno. 1999. ÒOn Recalling ANT.Ó In Actor Network Theory and After, edited by John Law and John Hassard. Blackwell.
Latour,
Bruno. We Have Never Been
Modern.
Week 10 (June 4). Analyzing Duality: The Study of Institutional Logics
Breiger,
Ronald. 2000. ÒA Tool Kit for Practice Theory.Ó Poetics 27(2-3):91-115.
Harcourt,
Bernard. 2002. "Measured Interpretation: Introducing the Method of Correspondence Analysis to Legal
Studies." Forthcoming in University
of Illinois Law Review.
Further
Reading:
Friedland,
Roger and John Mohr. 2002. ÒIntroduction.Ó The Cultural Turn in American
Sociology. Forthcoming, Cambridge
University Press.
Mohr,
John W. and Vincent Duquenne. 1997. "The Duality of Culture and
Practice: Poverty Relief in New
York City, 1888-1917."Theory and Society Vol. 26/2-3: 305-356.
Friedland, Roger and Robert R. Alford. 1991. "Bringing Society Back In: Symbols, Practices and Institutional Contradictions." Pps. 232-263 in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis edited by Walter W. Powell and Paul DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press