Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T14:28:39.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - The “Actors” of Modern Society:

The Cultural Construction of Social Agency (2000)

from Part IV - Institutions of Modernity and Postmodernity: The Construction of Actors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2021

Ronald L. Jepperson  and
John W. Meyer
By
J. Meyer  and
R. Jepperson
Ronald L. Jepperson
Affiliation:
University of Tulsa
John W. Meyer
Affiliation:
Stanford University, California
Get access

Summary

An analysis of the nature of modern “actors” or actorhood.Offers direct arguments about how the modern (European, now global) cultural system constructs the modern actor as an authorized agent for various interests. Seeing modern actorhood in this way helps greatly in explaining a number of otherwise anomalous or little analyzed features of modern individuals, organizations, and states.

Keywords

actorsactorhoodagencyotherhoodsocial construction
Type
Chapter
Information
Institutional Theory
The Cultural Construction of Organizations, States, and Identities
 , pp. 209 - 242
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, A. (1988). The System of Professions, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, J. (1986). Twenty Lectures on Sociological Theory, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined Communities, London: Verso.Google Scholar
Barnes, B., Bloor, D., & Henry, J.. (1996). Scientific Knowledge, London: Athlone.Google Scholar
Barrett, D. & Frank, D.. (1999). Population Control for National Development: From World Discourse to National Policies. In Boli, J. & Thomas, G. M., eds., Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 198–221.Google Scholar
Bellah, R. (1964). Religious Evolution. American Sociological Review, 29(3), 358–74.Google Scholar
Berg, I. (1970). Education and Jobs, New York, NY: Praeger.Google Scholar
Berger, P. L., Berger, B., & Kellner, H.. (1973). The Homeless Mind, New York, NY: Vintage.Google Scholar
Berkovitch, N. (1999). The International Women’s Movement: Transformations of Citizenship. In Boli, J. & Thomas, G. M., eds., Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 100–26.Google Scholar
Biersteker, T. (1992). The Triumph of Neoclassical Economics in the Developing World. In Rosenau, J. & Czempiel, E. O., eds., Governance without Government: Order and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 102–31.Google Scholar
Boli, J. (1987). World Polity Sources of Expanding State Authority and Organization, 1870–1970. In Thomas, G., Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F., & Boli, J., Institutional Structure: Constituting State, Society, and the Individual. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 71–91.Google Scholar
Boli, J. & Thomas, G., eds. (1999). Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a Theory of Practice, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyle, E. H. & Meyer, J.. (1998). Modern Law as a Secularized and Global Religious Model: Implications for the Sociology of Law. Soziale Welt, 49(3), 213–32.Google Scholar
Brunsson, N. (1989). The Organization of Hypocrisy: Talk, Decisions, and Action in Organizations, New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Chabbott, C. (1999). Defining Development: The Making of the International Development Field, 1945–1990. In Boli, J. & Thomas, G. M., eds., Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since I 875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 222–48.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. S. (1973). Power and the Structure of Society, New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. S. (1982). Sociological Insight, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of Social Theory, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Collins, R. (1979). The Credential Society, New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Crozier, M. (1964). The Bureaucratic Phenomenon, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dahrendorf, R. (1967). Society and Democracy in Germany, New York, NY: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. W.. (1983). The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbin, F., Sutton, J., Meyer, J., & Scott, W. R.. (1993). Equal Opportunity Law and the Construction of Internal Labor Markets. American Journal of Sociology, 99(2), 396–427.Google Scholar
Dumont, L. (1986). Essays on Individualism. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, L. (1990). Legal Environments and Organizational Governance. American Journal of Sociology, 95(6), 1401–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. (1986). The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. (1987). European Civilization in a Comparative Perspective, Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, M. & March, J. G.. (1981). Information in Organizations as Signal and Symbol. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26(2), 171–86.Google Scholar
Finnemore, M. (1996a). National Interests in International Society, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, M. (1996b). Norms, Culture, and World Politics: Insights from Sociology’s Institutionalism. International Organization, 50(2), 325–47.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and Punish, New York, NY: Vintage.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1990). The History of Sexuality, New York, NY: Vintage.Google Scholar
Frank, D., Hironaka, A., Meyer, J., Schofer, E., & Tuma, N.. (1999). The Rationalization and Organization of Nature in the World Culture. In Boli, J. & Thomas, G. M., eds., Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 81–99.Google Scholar
Frank, D. & McEneaney, E.. (1999). The Individualization of Society and the Liberalization of State Policies on Same-Sex Sexual Relations, 1985–1995. Social Forces, 77(3), 911–44.Google Scholar
Frank, D., Meyer, J., & Miyahara, D.. (1995). The Individualist Polity and the Centrality of Professionalized Psychology. American Sociological Review, 60, 360–37.Google Scholar
Friedson, E. (1986). Professional Powers, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hall, J. (1986). Powers and Liberties, New York, NY: Penguin.Google Scholar
Hannan, M. & Freeman, J.. (1989). Organizational Ecology, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, E. J., ed. (1983). The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Inkeles, A. (1983). Exploring Individual Modernity, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inkeles, A. & Smith, D. H.. (1974). Becoming Modern, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jepperson, R. L. (1991). Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism. In Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, pp. 143–63.Google Scholar
Jepperson, R. L. (1992). National Scripts: The Varying Construction of Individualism and Opinion Across Modern Nation-States. Ph.D. dissertation. Yale University, Department of Sociology.Google Scholar
Jepperson, R. L. & Meyer, J. W.. (1991). The Public Order and the Construction of Formal Organizations. In Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kalberg, S. (1994). Max Weber’s Comparative-Historical Sociology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 204–31.Google Scholar
Latour, B. (1987). Science in Action, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Laurent, A. (1983). The Cultural Diversity of Western Conceptions of Management. International Studies of Management and Organization, 13(1–2), 75–96.Google Scholar
Lerner, D. (1959). The Passing of Traditional Society, Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Luhmann, N. (1982). The Differentiation of Society, New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. (1986). The Sources of Social Power, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
March, J. (1988). Decisions and Organizations, Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
McNeely, C. (1995). Constructing the Nation-State, Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
McNeill, W. (1963). The Rise of the West, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1983). Conclusion: Institutionalization and the Rationality of Formal Organizational Structure. In Meyer, J. W. & Scott, W. R., eds., Organizational Environments. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, pp. 261–82.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1987). Self and Life Course: Institutionalization and its Effects. In Thomas, G., et al., eds., Institutional Structure. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 261–82.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1988). Society without Culture: A Nineteenth-Century Legacy. In Ramirez, F., ed., Rethinking the Nineteenth Century. New York, NY: Greenwood Press, pp. 193–201.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1989). Conceptions of Christendom: Notes on the Distinctiveness of the West. In Kohn, M., ed., Cross National Research in Sociology. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 395–413.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1994a). Rationalized Environments. In Scott, W. R., Meyer, J. W., et al., eds., Institutional Environments and Organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, pp. 28–54.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. (1994b). The Evolution of Modern Stratification Systems. In Grusky, D. B., ed., Social Stratification in Sociological Perspective. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, pp. 730–7.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W., Boli, J., Thomas, G. M., & Ramirez, F. O.. (1997). World Society and the Nation-State. American Journal of Sociology, 103(1), 144–82.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F., & Soysal, Y.. (1992). World Expansion of Mass Education, 1870–1970. Sociology of Education, 65(2), 128–49.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. & Rowan, B.. (1977). Institutionalized Organization: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83(2), 340–63.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. & Scott, W. R.. (1983). Organizational Environments, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Miller, P. & O’Leary, T.. (1987). Accounting and the Construction of the Governable Person. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12(3), 235–65.Google Scholar
Miller, P. & Rose, N.. (1994). On Therapeutic Authority: Psychoanalytical Expertise under Advanced Liberalism. History of the Human Sciences, 7(3), 29–65.Google Scholar
Needham, J. (1954). Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
North, R. & Thomas, R.. (1973). The Rise of the Western World, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, M. (1965). The Logic of Collective Action, New York, NY: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1954). The Professions and the Social Structure. In Parsons, T., ed., Essays in Sociological Theory. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, pp. 34–49.Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1966). Societies: Evolutionary and Comparative Perspectives. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Schofer, E. (1999). Science Associations in the International Sphere, 1875–1990: The Rationalization of Science and the Scientization of Society. In Boli, J. & Thomas, G. M., eds., Constructing World Culture: International Nongovernmental Organizations Since 1875. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 249–66.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R., Meyer, J. W., & associates. (1994). Institutional Environments and Organizations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sewell, W. H. Jr. (1992). A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 1–29.Google Scholar
Shenhav, Y. & Kamens, D. H.. (1991). The “Costs” of Institutional Isomorphism: Science in Non-Western Countries. Studies of Science, 21(3), 527–45.Google Scholar
Starr, P. (1982). The Social Transformation of American Medicine, New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Strang, D. & Chang, P.. (1993). The International Labor Organization and the Welfare State: Institutional Effects on National Welfare Spending, 1960–80. American Sociological Review, 47(2), 235–62.Google Scholar
Sutton, J., Dobbin, F., Meyer, J., & Scott, W. R.. (1994). Legalization of the Workplace. American Journal of Sociology, 99(4), 944–71.Google Scholar
Thomas, G. & Meyer, J. W.. (1984). The Expansion of the State. Annual Review of Sociology, 10, 461–82.Google Scholar
Thomas, G., Meyer, J. W., Ramirez, F., & Boli, J.. (1987). Institutional Structure: Constituting State, Society, and the Individual, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Tilly, C. (1992). Coercion, Capital, and European States, Cambridge, MA: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Treiman, D. (1977). Occupational Prestige in Comparative Perspective, New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Varenne, H. (1977). Americans Together, New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, I. (1974). The Modern World System, New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1927). General Economic History, New York, NY: Greenberg.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×