Restless Practices as Drivers of Purposive Institutional Change
On Practice and Institution: Theorizing the Interface
ISBN: 978-1-80043-413-4, eISBN: 978-1-80043-412-7
Publication date: 12 January 2021
Abstract
This paper develops the practice-driven institutionalist perspective by introducing the concept of “restless practices.” Drawing on the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, the authors distinguish practices by their “teloi”: some practices are devoted to replication, others are restlessly aimed at change. These restless practices are themselves composed of constitutive practices orientated toward “collecting,” “selecting” and “directing.” The authors illustrate restless practices and their constitutive practices by drawing on examples from consulting and standard-setting, both repeatedly generators of purposive, field-level change. The authors conclude that practice-driven institutionalism can accommodate change originating both from local improvisatory activities on the ground and from the designs of restless practices oriented toward fields at large.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the handling editor Michael Lounsbury and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.
Citation
Seidl, D., Ohlson, T. and Whittington, R. (2021), "Restless Practices as Drivers of Purposive Institutional Change", Lounsbury, M., Anderson, D.A. and Spee, P. (Ed.) On Practice and Institution: Theorizing the Interface (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 70), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 187-207. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20200000070006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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