Collapsing Foundations? Integrating the Microdynamics and Macrodynamics of Institutions

This introductory essay explores a key theme of this volume: rethinking the relationship between the microfoundational and macrofoundational agendas in institutional theory. Rather than treating these agendas as competing or mutually exclusive – with microfoundational research foregrounding the role of individuals and local actions in shaping institutions, and macrofoundational work highlighting in turn the contextualizing and constitutive power of institutional arrangements – we see them as offering complementary lenses for understanding how institutions emerge, unfold, and fall. We argue that this complementarity may have been obscured by misconceptions about the two agendas, and we focus on clarifying their premises and foregrounding some of their interconnected contributions to understanding institutional dynamics. We argue for an integrative view that draws together understandings of institutions and their dynamics at multiple scopes of analysis and propose some frontiers for such an approach – including further study of the lived experience of institutions, the cohesion of institutional arrangements, and participants’ own production and use of devices to represent and intervene in microphenomena and macrophenomena. In the process, we note some potentially fruitful theoretical alliances, including with phenomenology and practice theory. Ultimately, we aim to move beyond artificial dichotomies and advance a nuanced, holistic understanding of institutional processes.