Institutions, Innovation and Space Conference

Institutions, Innovation and Space

June 21-23, 2009

The first Alberta Conference on Institutional Theory, held in June 2003, considered the present and future status of institutional theory’. The second conference, to be held in June 2009, has a similarly ambitious though more focused mandate. We aim to assess our understanding of institutional innovation while provocatively exploring nascent directions. That is, the conference will:

• take stock of one of the central lines of research over the past few years, namely, the study of how institutional dynamics are both structured by, and, in turn, shape innovation; and,
• consider an emerging theme of research, namely the role of space as a dimension of community organization (geographic or virtual) and factor shaping institutional and innovation dynamics.

Over the past decade, the institutional analysis of organizations has increasingly shifted towards the study of institutional creation and transformation, emphasizing the role of powerful actors, such as the state and professions that act as “institutional entrepreneurs,” who reshape the social organization of fields and/or catalyze the creation of new dominant practices. Much attention has been paid to identifying these actors, their strategies—especially linguistic strategies—and the circumstances under which they are successful. In contrast, more recent work has shifted away from such instrumental actorcentered approaches that valorize “hero” entrepreneurs, in order to give appreciation to more complex, emergent, and accidental multi-level processes of institutional innovation. This latter research gives primacy not to heroic actors, but to structural forces, such as contradictory or ambiguous logics, and to processes of social construction. Given the rush of theorizing and empirical work on institutional innovation, the time is right for taking stock.

A complementary but less developed trajectory of research gives attention to the role of communities, both geographically bounded and virtual, in shaping the production of innovations and institutional change. Most research using the institutional perspective assumes the organizational field as the level of analysis. Fields are typically defined either around issues or, more commonly, a core industry. However, there has been a rediscovery of communities as arenas where institutional processes occur. These communities may be spatially bounded. The relationship between fields and communities is not yet clearly understood and deserves consideration. Thus, the conference will seek to enrich current conversations on institutions and innovation by highlighting recent thinking on issues such as the geographical rootedness of logics, virtual arenas as incubators of institutional innovation, and practices in the context of work on globalization, social movements, and community.

Participants:
It is intended to have approximately 50 participants.

Local costs for accommodation and subsistence costs during the conference will be covered by the University of Alberta for up to three nights/days.

To assist doctoral students there will be 12 doctoral travel scholarships of $500 CDN.

As in the first conference, our aim is to secure participation from around the world and to give equal opportunity for younger as well as established voices. Those who have already agreed to participate include: Steve Barley, Marie-Laure Djelic, Christine Oliver, Nelson Phillips, Woody Powell, Kerstin Sahlin, and Dick Scott.

Submissions:
If you are interested in participating, please submit an extended abstract (no more than 1000 words) of your proposed paper to conference2009@bus.ualberta.ca by December 15, 2008. Please ensure that you include contact information (names, affiliation and email address) for all authors. We also ask that you indicate which authors will attend the conference if your paper is accepted. If you are a PhD student and wish to be considered for a travel scholarship, please note this clearly on your submission. Authors will be notified before March 1, 2009 if their paper is accepted for presentation. Full papers should be submitted by May 30, 2009.

Organizing committee:
David Deephouse, Royston Greenwood, Bob Hinings, Dev Jennings, Mike Lounsbury, Trish Reay, Roy Suddaby, and Marvin Washington, all of the University of Alberta.

Conference Program - View PDF

Participants List - View PDF