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Research draft

institution

vr.tr.institution · SOC.ORG

Let an agent explain the two senses of institution, describe how institutions form and change, help identify and describe specific institutions with sources, and support institutional analysis.

Thing Registry Society, people and institutions

Research draft, second pass

A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.

written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify

Researched by: Claude

Purpose and description

Let an agent explain the two senses of institution, describe how institutions form and change, help identify and describe specific institutions with sources, and support institutional analysis.

An established organisation or a stable pattern of rules, norms and roles that structures social life, such as governments, courts, universities, hospitals, churches and banks as organisations, and marriage, property, law and language as social institutions; institutions endure beyond individuals, shape behaviour and are studied in sociology, economics and political science.

What it is for: Enduring structures of social life.

It can be distinguish organisational and social senses; explain how institutions form and change; describe a specific institution with sources; support institutional analysis.

Distinguishing features

Enduring

Rule-based

Role-structured

Two senses

What it looks like

Buildings and organisations in the concrete sense; abstract in the sociological sense.

How it is recognised

Enduring organisation or rule system

Shapes behaviour

A temporary group or single event is not an institution

Related models

is a kind of - category

organization

is a kind of - category

social structure

is related to - a common organisational form

institute

is related to - political institutions

government

In practice

Families and kinds

political and legal institutions

educational and research institutions

economic and financial institutions

religious and cultural institutions

social institutions such as family and marriage

Standards and regulation

Charters, statutes and founding laws

Governance and accountability rules

No regulation for social institutions as concepts

Failure modes and hazards

Confusing the two senses

Institutional decay and capture

Treating contested institutions as neutral without attribution

Where this came from

wikidata · CC0 1.0

Also registered as vr.tr.institution

Drafted structure

Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.

Senses Which sense.

Disambiguation.

Which

Organisation or pattern.

Which

Sense.

  1. Is a specific organisation or a social institution such as marriage or property meant? boundary
  2. Which entry fits? action

Specific

A specific institution.

Specific

Specific institution.

  1. What is this institution, what is its mandate, and how is it governed, according to its own documents and independent sources? provenance
  2. Who founded it and when? provenance
Theory How institutions work.

Analysis.

Formation

Formation and change.

Formation

Formation.

  1. How do institutions form, persist and change, according to institutional theory? provenance
  2. What is institutionalisation? definition

Economics

Institutions and outcomes.

Economics

Institutional economics.

  1. What does research say about how institutions affect economic and political outcomes? provenance
  2. Which debates are contested? boundary
Govern Governance and trust.

Accountability.

Accountability

Accountability.

Accountability

Accountability.

  1. How are institutions held accountable, and how is trust in them measured? provenance
  2. What are documented failures and reforms? provenance

Reform

Reform.

Reform

Reform.

  1. How can an institution be reformed, and which examples exist? provenance
  2. Which positions on reform are attributed? boundary
Learn Study.

Education.

Teach

Teaching about institutions.

Teach

Teaching.

  1. How can the concept of institutions be taught with examples? action
  2. Which misconceptions arise? provenance

Compare

Comparing institutions.

Compare

Comparison.

  1. How do similar institutions differ across countries? provenance
  2. Which indices compare institutional quality, and what are their limits? boundary

What the second pass must settle

  • Should social institutions be a separate entry?
  • How should institutional registers be linked?
  • How should institutional theory be linked?