Institution as mediation between social structure and agency: Toward a realist social ontology of institutions

Abstract

There is a widely accepted conception that institutions are norm systems or norm-guided practices. Opening this conception itself to discussion, the paper initially discusses a group of concepts, such as norm, power, practice, structure, etc., that are related to the definition of institution. Following the discussion, it focuses on the possibility of understanding institutions as spaces. Finally, the paper suggests that institutions mediate ontologically between structure and agency within a framework developed with a critical-realist approach, and formulates the two sides of this mediation (structure-institution and institution-agency) as two spatialities. While the institution as a topos corresponds to a ground on which social structures materialize their causal powers, the institution as a locus manifests itself as a place where agents reproduce and/or transform with their strategic and dispositional actions.