Family is NOT an institution: distinguishing institutions from organisations in social science and social theory

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the use, and potential misuse, of the ‘institution’ as a key concept in sociology. The concept of the ‘institution’ is interrogated using ‘family’ as an example and new institutional economics (NIE) as a crucible. The sociological understanding of family as an ‘institution’ is challenged by the distinction between ‘institutions’ and ‘organisations’ in NIE. The blurring of generic non-sociological terms with critical sociological concepts causes confusion between institutions and organisations. This is highly problematic for understanding social change in increasingly complex systems. I conclude that the contextual embedding of sociological concepts remains important to the appropriate use of the term ‘institution’ in the social sciences.

KEYWORDS:

• New institutionalism
• social theory
• institution
• organisation
• political economy
• complex interplay theory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Peter Rogers is at Department of Sociology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.

ORCiD

Peter Rogers http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7851-7083

Notes

1. It is worth noting that the Oxford English Dictionary offers up to eight but with more variations (i.e. nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. not to mention time periods) this is by no means exhaustive. The general language is inconclusive on this definition.

2. For a detailed explanation of ‘time-space-place’ see Rogers 2012.

3. For a useful comparison of Weber and Veblen, in particular in the early institutional economics but also on the process of rationalisation see Hedoin 2009.

4. The ‘Hello Nurse’ was introduced by hospitals during this time of key performance indicators as set by targets to reduce hospital waiting times. The nurse was employed to greet the patients, conducting an informal 5 minutes exam – sometimes but not always – as a way to show that staff had consulted a patient and therefore removing them from the waiting list. This effectively reduced waiting times to within the guidelines set by the targets but undermined standard clinical standards for triage in accident and emergency departments nationwide. See for more Mathieson 2001.

5. A rather crude form of ‘Sie wissen das nicht, aber sie tun es’ (‘they do not know it, but they are doing it’) as drawn from Marx (1867 [2004]).

6. See for an interesting treatment of this from within economic theory, Meyer and Rowan 1977.

7. From Greek, seen as one of the four forms of love in the Christian bible loosely defined as ‘Parental affection; the instinctive affection which animals have for their young’.