Bringing Society Back in Again: The Importance of Social Interaction in an Inhabited Institutionalism

Abstract

The “micro” turn in institutional research is a welcome development in a field that has commonly adopted a macro approach to the study of institutions. Nevertheless, research in the emergent “microinstitutional” tradition often ignores a fundamental social form: social interaction. The goal of this chapter is to bring this form of society back into institutional analysis, as a key mesocomponent of an “inhabited institutional” approach. The authors argue that social interactions are vital to the understandings of institutions, how they operate, and their impact on society. The authors advance inhabited institutionalism as a mesosociological approach that is consistent with key premises of institutional theory.

Citation

Hallett, T. and Hawbaker, A. (2019), "Bringing Society Back in Again: The Importance of Social Interaction in an Inhabited Institutionalism", Haack, P., Sieweke, J. and Wessel, L. (Ed.) Microfoundations of Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 65B), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 317-336. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X2019000065B024