New Institutional Entrepreneurship and a Celebrity CEO: The Role of Institutional Actors in Japan

DiMaggio and Powell [1983. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review 48 (2): 147–160] suggest that the trend currently seen in Japanese organizations to develop organizational reforms, and notably downsizing, is a kind international ‘mimetic isomorphism’ based on Western blueprints. These concepts of isomorphism and legitimacy go hand in hand with the increase in the use of Western language. However, this paper shows that these concepts have not entered into Japanese culture without debate, resistance and transformation. The paper also looks at the newly developing concept of ‘institutional work’ [Lawrence, T., and R. Suddaby. 2006. “Institutional Work.” In The Sage Handbook of Organization Studies, edited by S. Clegg, T. B. Lawrence and W. R. Nord, 215–254. London: Sage; Lawrence, T. B., R. Suddaby, and B. Leca. 2009. Institutional Work: Actors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Lawrence, T. B., R. Suddaby, and B. Leca. 2011. “Institutional Work: Refocusing Institutional Studies of Organization.” Journal of Management Inquiry 20 (1): 52–58], and argues that this is a useful concept in order to study how PR activities in the Western style have become institutionalized within organizations. The paper also investigates the roles of institutional actors in Japan, by examining the case of Nissan Motor. This industry leader announced drastic downsizing, almost for the first time in Japan, suggesting its contribution to creating new institutional entrepreneurship more widely within Japanese organizations. This research examines the role of top leaders and mass media, who are one of the main institutional actors but are less often considered by neo-institutional theory.     

Islamic Migrant Organizations: Little‐Studied Actors in Humanitarian Action

Since 9/11, attention to Islamic migrant organizations within Western countries has grown. However, the humanitarian activities of these organizations have received only limited attention. Hence, it is not yet clear why these organizations engage in humanitarian crises, which specific role Islam plays in their humanitarian engagement and which factors influence the scope of their activities in humanitarian crises. This paper aims to address these research questions by using approaches from sociology of organizations and presenting three empirical case studies from Germany. Particularly, it argues that although all three case studies are active in humanitarian crises the scope of their activities differs due to their differing organizational characteristics, member interests and external expectations.     

Corporate Foundations as Hybrid Organizations: A Systematic Review of Literature

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The rise and global reach of the corporate foundation (CF) phenomenon has attracted the attention of academic researchers...     

Advocacy Compromised: How Financial,Organizational and Institutional Factors Shape Advocacy Strategies of Civil Society Organizations

Key functions of civil society organizations (CSOs) are to criticize governments and to hold them to account. Recent trends of privatization and contracting out challenge CSOs’ opportunities to voice such criticism. The purpose of this article is to analyse whether and why CSOs ‘hold back their criticism’ of public authorities, and how a compromised advocacy can be linked to financial, organizational and institutional factors. The article draws on an original survey of 2678 Swedish CSOs. The analyses show that certain levels of funding make CSOs more likely to hold back in their criticism, but also organizational and institutional factors play a role. The results identify the importance of distinguishing between objective and subjective factors related to how dependency is framed. It is the felt needs, experiences and perceptions of CSOs themselves that make hem prone to the strategic choice to hold back criticism of public authorities.     

Third Sector Organizations and Migration: A Systematic Literature Review on the Contribution of Third Sector Organizations in View of Flight,Migration and Refugee Crises

Long before the current refugee crisis, third sector organizations (TSOs) have played a pivotal role in dealing with the multifaceted challenge of migration. Researchers have analyzed this role in many ways. What is missing, however, is a comprehensive overview of how the third sector contributes to dealing with migration. To close this gap, we conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) that maps the scholarly debate on TSOs and migration. Our SLR identifies four domains of TSO migration engagement: first, the direct provision of basic services and social welfare; second, migrant-oriented capacity development; third, system-oriented advocacy; and fourth, complementary research activities. We propose a conceptual framework that highlights the contribution of TSOs with regard to individual-oriented and system-oriented services that are necessary for a successful integration of migrants. A key implication of our derived framework is to understand migration as a holistic challenge that requires contributions by different actors on different levels, thus highlighting the need for coordination and communication between the TSOs, the state and other stakeholders.     

Carl Milofsky: Towards an Institutional Theory of Community and Community Associations: A Review

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

欧盟对中东北非政策调整之我见

法、德两国领导人更替后，欧洲同美国的关系恢复到伊拉克战争之前的状态，但是欧盟主要大国及欧盟本身对中东北非地区的政策仍不同于美国。2003年以来，该地区一系列事件发生后，欧盟及欧洲各大国决策者和学者对以往的政策做出评估或修改：比以往更强调坚持长期的经济发展政策；由下而上改变政权结构；推动中东北非国家进入国际体系；提高治理能力及保障人身安全等，从而达到“以发展促安全、以安全促发展”之目的。     

欧盟对中东北非政策调整之我见

法、德两国领导人更替后,欧洲同美国的关系恢复到伊拉克战争之前的状态,但是欧盟主要大国及欧盟本身对中东北非地区的政策仍不同于美国.2003年以来,该地区一系列事件发生后,欧盟及欧洲各大国决策者和学者对以往的政策做出评估或修改:比以往更强调坚持长期的经济发展政策;由下而上改变政权结构;推动中东北非国家进入国际体系;提高治理能力及保障人身安全等,从而达到"以发展促安全,以安全促发展"之目的.     

Institutional innovation, contingency and war: A review

For over forty years, Douglass North has sought in his work to determine those conditions that favor economic growth. In his most recent writings he has emphasized the institutional innovations of the state and how these are often preceded, or accompanied, by transformations in beliefs and constitutional structures. This review of North's work also discusses the efforts of a younger generation of scholars in economic and political history to apply the tools of public choice theory in constructing “institutional narratives”. Such narratives often focus on the nature of constitutional quandaries that polities have faced in the past. The conclusion suggests that the study of such quandaries can lead to a better understanding of how and why states fight wars. Indeed, it might be possible to use the insights so gained to design international institutions to foster economic growth and preserve peace. Received: 7 September 1998/Accepted: 28 May 1999     

The Sonoran Desert’s Domestic Bracero Programme: Institutional Actors and the Creation of Labour Migration Streams

This paper traces the journeys of male migrants to Empalme, Sonora, Mexico to uncover the development of the often overlooked domestic bracero programme that operated in conjunction with its well‐known international equivalent. Drawing on interviews and observations with ex‐braceros who met at a park near the Mexico‐US border, I examine their experiences and participation in Mexico’s domestic bracero program, an unintended and unexplored consequence of its international counterpart. The study shows how regulation and control were constantly reinvented at every step of the selection process by state actors and their affiliates in Mexico. The paper reveals how the oversupply of labour and modernization of agriculture in Sonora resulted in the development of a migration industry where local municipal leaders, coyotes, the state, and Mexican agribusiness capitalized from men’s displacement. The migration industry during the bracero selection process controlled who gained access to the United States labour market by capturing migrant labour en route to the United States in the process fueling a thriving cotton industry in the otherwise stagnant Sonoran Desert economy. The study concludes by taking the lessons from the historic domestic bracero programme to show one instance in which internal and international labour markets were closely interwoven. In the end, I call for more research that examines the relationship between markets on both sides of the border that uncovers how networks are not only structured by personal ties but also by state and market relations.     

Review Essay: Power and Culture in Organizations: Two Contrasting Views

Sociological Forum -     

Book Review: Cultural Pluralism and Dilemmas of Justice. By Monique Deveaux. Cornell University Press,Ithaca, NY, 2000

Sociological Practice -     

Planning for Pluralism:

No abstract available for this article.     

A Case for Limiting the Reach of Institutional Review Boards

Institutional review boards (IRBs) governing social and behavioral research seem to systematically exceed the guidelines established by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. We examine a clandestine study of prostitution and another of employment discrimination and conclude that IRBs, more concerned about being sued than they are about protecting research subjects, get in the way of science and cause ethical problems as a consequence. We discuss the ethical principles involved and call for a suspension of all IRB review in the social and behavioral sciences.     

Citizenship,Pluralism, and Modern Public Space

The article begins with the realist assumption in political science that posits that political violence and chaos occurs in the absence of the state, and that the international system is congenitally anarchic. Using the Y2K problem and the 11 September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York as two instances of violent political phenomena within global modernity, this article examines notions of citizenship, pluralism, and their relationships with modern public space through the lens of 'public disaster' scenarios in which the breakdown of centralized systems of power tends to lead to chaos. However, public disasters also appear to create the opposite effect of bonding communities together in the face of adversity that leads to greater social cohesion rather than the breakdown of social institutions. The article tries to resolve this apparent enigma through several theories of public space, democracy, and civil society.     

Setsuko Matsuzawa: Activating China: Local Actors,Foreign Influence,and State Response

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Organizations and Learning: A Critical Appraisal

Discussions about organizations and learning continue to attract critical interest. Since the emergence in the 1970s of the notion of the “learning organization,” notions of systems’ learning, knowledge management and lifelong learning have progressively entered into the debates. Earlier debates, which drew on education and psychology fields as well as organization and management studies, frequently explored plural objectives for learning occurring within organizational and workplace arenas. They included emphasis on workers’ as well as managerial interests in various forms and objectives of learning. Latter debates on organizational learning appear predominantly shaped by a distinctive economic rationality and management interest. This article, from a sociological vantage point, reviews key thematic issues and critically explores some current questions in regard to organizations and learning. It proposes that a prevailing economic model in accordance with generalized policy objectives evident across the advanced economies for a neo‐liberalized “knowledge‐based economy” and “learning society” poses a particular set of contemporary issues and problems. The current juncture may, however, stimulate further innovation in models of learning organizations that widen agenda and prospects for learning.