Sociology 219: Institutional Theories: Cultural / Phenomenological Approaches Class 3: Social Construction and an Overview of Sociological Institutionalism Copyright © 2009 by Evan Schofer

Announcements Assignment #1 due Next week Social construction of individuals David Frank will be joining us Assignment #2 handed out; due in 2 weeks

Agenda Preview of upcoming readings Presentations: Beth: B&L Chapter 1 Paul: B&L Chapter 2 Discussion of Berger & Luckmann: Social Construction of Reality & Meyer Break Discussion of Jepperson: Overview of sociological neo-institutionalism.

Readings Meyer, John W “The Self and the Life Course.” In Thomas, George et al Institutional Structure Constructing State, Society, and Individual. Newberry Park, CA: Sage. Meyer, John W "Myths of Socialization and Personality," pp in T. Heller et al. (eds), Reconstructing Individualism. Two critical looks at the person/self from an institutional perspective Builds on social psych literature, which finds very low association between ‘personality’ and action across contexts Points to ways that wider institutional environment “constructs” the individual and life course.

Readings Frank, David J. and John W. Meyer “The Profusion of Individual Roles and Identities in the Postwar Period.” Sociological Theory, 20, 1: An institutional look at the issue of “identity”… and the historical elaboration of modern selves. Frank, David J., Bayliss Camp, and Steven A. Boutcher. “Worldwide Trends in the Criminal Regulation of Sex, ” Working Paper. A “big-picture” look at how broader shift toward individualism is re- shaping law Important issue: What was the world like before the institutionalization of individualism? –Among other things: corporatist forms dominated. Family, etc.

Readings *Goffman, Erving The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Anchor Books. [excerpt] *Goffman, Erving Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. London: Harper and Row. [excerpt] Goffman explored how individuals enact themselves in everyday life. Similar view of the individual/situation, but less emphasis on external institutions. *Focault, Michel. [1976] (1998). The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: The Will to Knowledge. London: Penguin. [excerpt] Brilliant historical analysis showing how individual behavior is structured by societal institutions.

Mini-Presentations B & L Chapters 1 & 2

Class Discussion Berger & Luckmann: Social Construction of Reality P Habituation not same as institutionalization –Institutions are habituated; don’t entirely depend on sanctions –Institutions have historicity; involve social control P : “An institutional world, then, is experienced as an objective reality” –Also: An institutional order develops a canopy of legitimations… both cognitive and normative. “the more conduct is institutionalized, the more predictable … it becomes.” –Coercion is rarely needed.

Class Discussion Berger & Luckmann: Social Construction P. 70: Institutions as knowledge –Not objective scientific knowledge, but “what everybody ‘knows’”. P. 71: “It may be stressed again here that no a priori consistency, let alone functionality, may be presumed as existing between different institutions…” –Ex: No reason why institutions of a hunting society can’t diffuse in an agricultural society –A response to functionalism in anthropology, sociology. P. 79: Roles = important; –Analysis of roles reveals the mediations between macro universes of meaning objectivated in a society and the ways by which these universes are subjectively real to individuals…

Class Discussion Berger & Luckmann P. 81; Scope of institutionalization –Total institution (Goffman’s asylum): institutional order embraces the totality of social life –Alternative: instituitonal order only in specific areas of life »Ex: tribal groups that engage in common warfare. –Scope can vary over time; de-institutionalization can occur P. 85: Institutional segmentation: Socially segregated sub-universes of meaning –Must be sustained by a collectivity

Class Discussion Berger & Luckmann P. 89: reification: “man is capable of forgetting his own authorship of the human world. –“Marriage may be reified as an imitation of divine acts of creativity, as a universal mandate of natural law, as the necessary consequence of biological or psychological forces, or for that matter, as a functional imperative of the social system. P. 93: “Legitimation “explains” the institutional order by ascribing cognitive validity to its objectivated meanings.” –Cognitive, not just normative.

Class Discussion Berger & Luckmann P. 123: Carriers of “definitions of reality in society” –In Medieval Europe, monopoly over defining reality –Vs. e.g., pluralism P. 128: Relationship between ideas and sustaining social processes is a dialectical one. –“It is correct to say that theories are concocted to legitimate already existing social institutions. But it also happens that social institutions are changed to bring them into conformity with already existing theories, that is, to make them more ‘legitimate’.” –“Definitions of reality have self-fulfilling potency”.