What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

As well as review the literature on the notion of institutional entrepreneurship introduced by Paul DiMaggio in 1988, we propose a model of the process of institutional entrepreneurship We first present theoretical and definitional issues associated with the concept and propose a conceptual account of institutional entrepreneurship that helps to accommodate them We then present the different phases of the process of institutional entrepreneurship from the emergence of institutional entrepreneurs to their implementation of change Finally, we highlight future directions for research on institutional entrepreneurship, and conclude with a discussion of its role in strengthening institutional theory as well as, more broadly, the field of organization studies

/pdf/how-actors-change-institutions-towards-a-theory-of-157mc7o554.pdf

How actors change institutions : Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship

Summary. This paper focuses on the fifth dimension of social innovation—i.e. political governance. Although largely neglected in the mainstream ‘innovation’ literature, innovative governance arrangements are increasingly recognised as potentially significant terrains for fostering inclusive development processes. International organisations like the EU and the World Bank, as well as leading grass-roots movements, have pioneered new and more participatory governance arrangements as a pathway towards greater inclusiveness. Indeed, over the past two decades or so, a range of new and often innovative institutional arrangements has emerged, at a variety of geographical scales. These new institutional ‘fixes’ have begun to challenge traditional state-centred forms of policy-making and have generated new forms of governance-beyond-thestate. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, the paper argues that the emerging innovative horizontal and networked arrangements of governance-beyond-the-state are decidedly Janus-faced. While enabling new forms of participation and articulating the state‐ civil society relationships in potentially democratising ways, there is also a flip side to the process. To the extent that new governance arrangements rearticulate the state-civil society relationship, they also redefine and reposition the meaning of (political) citizenship and, consequently, the nature of democracy itself. The first part of the paper outlines the contours of governance-beyond-the-state. The second part addresses the thorny issues of the state‐civil society relationship in the context of the emergence of the new governmentality associated with governance-beyond-the-state. The third part teases out the contradictory way in which new arrangements of governance have created new institutions and empowered new actors, while disempowering others. It is argued that this shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’ is associated with the consolidation of new technologies of government, on the one hand, and with profound restructuring of the parameters of political democracy on the other, leading to a substantial democratic deficit. The paper concludes by suggesting that socially innovative arrangements of governance-beyond-the-state are fundamentally Janus-faced, particularly under conditions in which the democratic character of the political sphere is increasingly eroded by the encroaching imposition of market forces that set the ‘rules of the game’.

Governance Innovation and the Citizen: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State:

List of Boxes. List of Tables and Figure. Preface. Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. Capitalism and the Capitalist Type of State. 2. The Keynesian Welfare National State. 3. The Schumpeterian Competition State. 4. Social Reproduction and the Workfare State. 5. The Political Economy of State Rescaling. 6. From Mixed Economy to Metagovernance. 7. Towards Schumpeterian Workfare Postnational Regimes?. Notes. References. Index.

The Future of the Capitalist State.

Social Justice and the City

Public policy instrumentation and its choice of tools and modes of operation are treated either as a kind of evidence (governing means making regulations, taxing, entering into contracts, communicating, etc.) or as if the questions it raises (the properties of instruments, justifications for choosing them, their applicability, etc.) are part of a rationality of methods without any autonomous meaning. This paper aims to explain the significance of a political sociology approach to public policy instruments in accounting for processes of public policy change: (1) public policy instrumentation is a major issue in public policy, since it reveals a (fairly explicit) theorization of the relationship between the governing and the governed: every instrument constitutes a condensed form of knowledge about social control and ways of exercising it; and (2) instruments at work are not neutral devices: they produce specific effects, independently of the objective pursued (the aims ascribed to them), which structure public policy according to their own logic.

Introduction: Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation

Alors que la plupart des debats autour des politiques publiques se focalisent sur les objectifs annonces et sur les resultats obtenus, l’ouvrage dirige par Pierre Lascoumes et Patrick Le Gales propose de faire porter l’attention sur les instruments de l’action publique. A travers ces etudes de cas europeens, de la rationalisation salariale dans l’administration francaise a la restructuration de l’Etat en Grande-Bretagne, en passant par la reforme de la politique bancaire en Italie, un certain nombre de caracteristiques – des conditions de leur choix, des effets qu’ils produisent, aux rapports gouvernantsgouvernes qu’ils induisent – se dessinent. Au-dela, l’analyse des instruments d’action publique demontre sa capacite a reveler l’evolution des politiques publiques. [Resume editeur]

Gouverner par les instruments

Du gouvernement des villes a la gouvernance urbaine. Patrick Le Gales. ; Analyse et discussion du concept de gouvernance et son utilite: il s'agit de montrer en quoi les principales transformations du gouvernement des villes en France et en Grande-Bretagne rendent en partie caduques les analyses institutionnelles des relations entre Etat et gouvernement local, alors qu'elles entrent dans une problematique de la gouvernance. Enfin, a partir de ce constat, deux theories de niveau intermediaires, celles des coalitions d'interet et de regimes politiques urbains sont analysees et critiquees car trop marquees par leur origine americaine. Au concept de gouvernance comme probleme a resoudre, on suggere de substituer une acception plus sociologique de la gouvernance urbaine.

Du gouvernement des villes à la gouvernance urbaine

European cities are on the rise, and are taking advantage of the opportunities of the European integration and globalization processes. But they also face economic changes, social inequalities, poverty and a new set of constraints. Taking examples through the European Union, European Cities explores the impact of the transformation of the nation states on cities and the change of local societies and local governments. It argues that new modes of urban governance are emerging, and that cities are becoming collective actors within European governance. European Cities shows why and how the bulk of European cities still appear to be original forms of compromise, aggregation, representation of diverse interests, and culture. Different modes of governance are gradually being structured in most middle size European cities despite processes of social exclusion segregation accompanied by the increased mobility of some citizens. Are Europeans going to invent a new form of institutionalized and territorialized capitalism, of which medium-sized European cities will be one of the pillars and one of the actors ? Failing that, the effects of changing scales could be expressed as profound transformations of the European urban model.

European Cities: Social Conflicts and Governance

In most European countries, any challenge to the state raises major disquiet, given the weight of influence of states in structuring groups and interests and in organizing economic development, notably in the most heavily centralized countries. This article develops the hypothesis that the political aspect is being reinforced at the sub-national level. Then, following from this, it makes a detour through the works of various economists and sociologists, in order to bring to light — though not to try and cover exhaustively — modes of regulation which they have identified. In doing this, questions are asked about political regulation in situations or contexts where it is not necessarily dominant, in the hope that this may lead to an understanding of how different types of regulation have formed linkages in different types of territory. Finally, the article develops the concept of governance and redefines it within a territorial framework, from a ‘new political economy’ perspective.

Patrick Le Galès

Papers

Introduction: Understanding Public Policy through Its Instruments—From the Nature of Instruments to the Sociology of Public Policy Instrumentation

Gouverner par les instruments

Du gouvernement des villes à la gouvernance urbaine

European Cities: Social Conflicts and Governance

Regulations and Governance in European Cities