Online Encyclopedia
New institutionalism
New institutionalism is a social theory that focuses on defining institutions, the way they interact and the effects of institutions on society. It recognizes that institutions operate in an environment of other institutions, called the institutional environment. Every institution is influenced by the broader environment though institutional isomorphism (or in simpler terms institutional peer pressure).
In new institutional theory Institutions are durable, transmittable, maintainable, and reproducible (Scott 2001). Berger and Luckmann (1966) speak of a dialectic process in which institutions are socially constructed but also influence the people who create them. "Man…and his social world interact with each other. The product acts back upon the producer" (p. 61). In this way, institutions are durable - they persist across time (transmittable) and are somewhat difficult to change. Institutions are also maintainable and reproducible. When individuals follow appropriate institutional logics, they are reproducing institutions.
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History
In some ways, institutionalism and the analysis of the way institutions affect our society are as old as the Greek Philosophers. Thinkers for thousands of years have recognized that insititutions interact with one another in ways that can be studied and understood. Sociologists in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century began to systematize this study. Economist and Social theorist Max Weber focused on the ways bureaucracy and institutions were coming to dominate our society with his notion of the iron cage that rampant institutionalization created.
In the 1980s new institutionalism, sometimes called 'neo-institutionalism' has seen a revival of the focus on the study of institutions as a lens for viewing work in a number of disciplines including economics, international relations and political science. Authors like Paul Dimaggio and Walter Powell consciously revisited Weber's iron cage (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991) in the early 1990s. The following decade saw an explosion of literature on the topic across disciplines.
Regulative, Normative and Cultural-Cognitive Frameworks
New institionalism focuses on pervasive influence of institutions on human behavior through rules, norms, and meanings for behavior or regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive frameworks (Scott 2001).
Among institutions, regulative frameworks provide a "stable system of rules, either formal or informal, backed by surveillance and sanctioning power" (Scott 2001, p. 54). These rules may dictate appropriate behavior and action with the intent of evoking conformity (Scott 2001). Individuals who are constrained under this type of institutionalism will pattern their behavior by seeking to maximize benefits, similar to rational choice theory.
The roots of the normative framework in new institutionalism are in Talcott Parsons' view of the individual acting under normative systems, focusing on norms, values, and obligations. This framework "emphasize[s] the stabilizing influence of social beliefs and norms, which are both internalized and imposed by others" (Scott 2001, p. 56). Individuals under this type of institutionalism will act out of duty or an awareness of what one is "supposed" to do.
Both the regulative and normative conceptions of institutionalism provide useful explanations for behavior, but new institutionalism adds an important cognitive element. This perspective adds that, instead of acting under rules or based on obligation, individuals act because of conceptions. "Compliance occurs in many circumstances because other types of behavior are inconceivable; routines are followed because they are taken for granted as 'the way we do these things'" (Scott 2001, p. 57). Individuals make certain choices or perform certain actions not because they fear punishment or attempting to conform, and not because an action is appropriate or the individual feels some sort of social obligation. Instead, the cognitive element of new institutionalism suggests that individuals make certain choices because they can conceive of no other alternative. A "common framework of meaning" (Scott 2001, p. 58) attaches meaning to actions, expanding institutional logics to include a link between meaning and practices (Friedland and Alford 1991).
Individual choice and Institutions
New institutionalism recognizes that individuals' choices are influenced by the societal context. Institutions come to include "both supraorganizational patterns of activity through which humans conduct their material life in time and space, and symbolic systems through which they categorize that activity and infuse it with meaning" (DiMaggio and Powell 1991, p. 232). For example a woman might wear a dress to worship services for fear of being sanctioned. Or, under a normative framework, the dress-wearing may be out of a sense of obligation. However, new institutionalism could highlight the meaning of this gendered behavior in a larger societal context. The woman, wanting to maintain her femininity in a gendered system, might consider the appropriate action for a woman to be to wear a dress to worship services (logics of appropriateness). Here we see the link between the meaning and the practice, and the meaning becomes taken for granted (institutionalized).
Interdisciplinary relevance
This way of understanding individual choice is also relevant to economics. New institionalists in economics recognize that institutions have at least as much influence on the economy as individual's choices. See Institutional economics
References
Berger, Peter L. and Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Doubleday.
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 J. DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Friedland, Roger and Robert R. Alford. 1991. "Bringing Society Back In: Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions." Pp. 232-263 in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, edited by Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Jepperson, Ronald L. 1991. "Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism." Pp. 143-163 in The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, edited by W. W. Powell, DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Parto, Saeed. 2003. "Economic Activity and Institutions," Others 0303001, Economics Working Paper Archive at WUSTL.
Scott, Richard W. 2001. Institutions and Organizations, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
External links
- Center for New Institutional Social Sciences - Interdisciplinary center at Washington University in St. Louis.
- Introductory Reading List in New Institutional Economics
- International Society for New Institutional Economics