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In this study we examine how resource-constrained organizations can maneuver for competitive advantage in highly institutionalized fields. Unlike studies of institutional entrepreneurship, we investigate competitive maneuvering by an organization that is unable to alter either the regulative or normative institutions that characterize its field. Using the “Moneyball” phenomenon and recent changes in Major League Baseball as the basis for an intensive case study of entrepreneurial actions taken by the Oakland A’s, we found that the A’s were able to maneuver for advantage by using bricolage and refusing to enact baseball’s cognitive institutions, and that they continued succeeding despite ongoing resource constraints and rapid copying of their actions by other teams. These results contribute to our understanding of competitive maneuvering and change in institutionalized fields. Our findings expand the positioning of bricolage beyond its prior characterization as a tool used primarily by peripheral organizations in less institutionalized fields; our study suggests that bricolage may aid resource constrained participants (including the majority of entrepreneurial firms) to survive in a wider range of circumstances than previously believed.

The increase in college students’ mental health struggles has led to a 30–40% increase in college counseling center visits between 2009 and 2015 (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2018). Traditional responses to this problem have focused mainly on increasing therapy staffs, but this approach has reached a tipping point due to shrinking budgets. In this piece, we advocate for widening the lens on the college student mental health issue to focus more on the systems that can mitigate or exacerbate students’ wellbeing. More specifically, we propose an updated version of in loco parentis as a model that could potentially decrease alienation and encourage the kinds of meaningful connections young people need to thrive.

Dressed in a mid-calf, purple cotton dress with a matching raw knit cardigan casually draped over her arm, Laurel enters the room. A large, loaded down, cloth bag hangs from her shoulder, and she clutches books and papers in both hands. I am struck, as always, by her presence. Appearing calm while rushing, she gracefully takes over the room. No, the room appears larger once she enters; Laurel opens space for those present.

In this chapter, I return to a conference I organized with Michael Flaherty in 1990 and transcribe an exchange I had there with Norman Denzin about lived experience and emotions. I develop this conversation as a starting point for honoring Norman's many contributions to my life and career and to the interpretive community in general. This discussion provides a view into the concerns of symbolic interactionists and scholars of emotions, as well as a glimpse of Norman in action and my coming into my own, during the 1990s. I interpret this dialogue as an epiphany in the development of my relationship with Norman, in my self-confidence as a scholar, and in evocative autoethnography as an appreciated qualitative perspective and approach.

In 1930s Britain, tennis champion Fred Perry was a household name. However, the name Fred Perry is more commonly associated with striped-collar polo shirts featuring a laurel wreath logo. In the late 1960s, Fred Perry polo shirts were standard mod and Skinhead dress. When worn by working-class youth the shirt became subversive commentary on English elitism because it had originally been designed for the tennis courts. Many punks also aligned with the brand in dual demonstration of association with working-class ethics as well as an alternative to t-shirts. In the 1980s and onward, this sartorial style was appropriated by right-wing white nationalists, which stripped it of its subcultural spirit. Patriot groups, such as neo-Nazis and the alt-right have continued to co-opt the subcultural style, simultaneously turning the Fred Perry polo into a symbol of racism and bigotry. The multi-use of the Fred Perry brand creates a challenge in how to interpret visual cues when one garment has competing perceptions that at times can be completely opposing. This study examines the history of the Fred Perry brand through the lens of symbolic interactionism, specifically how the shirt evolved from a rather innocuous, yet subversive, form of merchandize repurposed from the tennis world to youth subcultures where the polo communicated group identity. As the brand has moved through fashion cycles, the association of the Fred Perry polo with deviant groups has reduced the brand to representations of hate and separation, which has impacted sales and brand image with its intended consumers.