Institutions and Work

In this article, we argue that the flowering conversation under the label of “institutional work” can be productively enriched by segregating the notions of “institutions” and “work, and by engaging more fully with both micro- and macro-sociological contributions of the “old institutionalism.” We illustrate the value of these extensions by discussing three areas of theoretical and empirical interest: methodological groupism, the relationship between social structure and social process at both micro and macro levels, and the relationship between social analysis and social critique. By pursuing these directions, we believe the notion of institutional work can avoid conflation with variants of methodological individualism, and might usefully contribute to ongoing conversations about agency across the social sciences