Imitation and Processes of Institutionalization – Insights from Bourdieu's Theory of Practice

Approaches to explain processes of institutionalization have stressed the importance of linguistic processes. Bourdieu’s theory of practice argued, however, that institutions are also transmitted through processes of mimesis, i.e. the unconscious imitation of other actors’ actions. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework that explains processes of institutionalization based on Bourdieu’s theory of practice. Based on research from related fields such as social psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science and anthropology, we show that through imitation, actors unconsciously incorporate a field’s institutions and build cognitive schemata that enable them to adapt their actions to the field’s institutions. Our study contributes to new institutionalism by developing a new perspective on processes of institutionalization and by applying research from related academic fields to explain cognitive processes that take place during institutionalization