Logo image
Organizations as Sites and Drivers of Social Action
Book chapter

Organizations as Sites and Drivers of Social Action

Walter W. Powell and Christof Brandtner
Handbook on Contemporary Sociological Theory, pp.269-291
Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research, Springer
01/07/2016

Abstract

organizations sociological theory Organizations and society Social mechanisms inequality Change Persistence embeddedness
This chapter advances a recursive view of organizations as both sites of important social outcomes, such as inequality, persistence, change, as well as embeddedness, and drivers of them. Society and people configure organizations, and organizations shape and reproduce society and the lives of people. We illuminate the mechanisms through which these relations co-evolve, highlighting four bundles of social processes that operate inside and outside organizations: (1) discrimination and formalization, (2) institutionalization and imprinting, (3) socializing and mobilization, and (4) learning and access. We contend that organizational theory offers insights to many sociological subfields, and we encourage scholars across the discipline to re-engage with organizational analysis.
pdf
4649e4_049ad37967a04842ad498439f7b4f44d
Restricted Access

Metrics

14 Record Views

Details

Logo image