Synopses & Reviews
John W. Meyer's work broke new grounds in institutional thought in sociology and made him a central thinker for the emerging interdisciplinary field of neo-institutionalism, while at the same time establishing institutional thought's comparative variant, world society theory. His scholarship plays a prominent role in contemporary social theory, and has shaped research areas such as international relations and globalization, organization theory, and management studies.
One of the results of Meyer's wide-ranging and interdisciplinary influence is that his work has appeared in a diverse range of outlets. This book brings together some of John W. Meyer's widely-scattered work, reviewing four decades of scholarship, and adding several original pieces from Meyer's current work. It gathers substantive commentary on social processes, from stratification to globalization to socialization, as well as on key social institutions, from science to religion to law to education. In its expansive review, this book is both about neo-institutional thought in general and world society theory in particular.
This book is both by John W. Meyer and about John W. Meyer: to the compilation of Meyer's canonized and current work, Georg Krücken and Gili S. Drori add an essay on the theoretical and empirical contribution of Meyer's institutional theory, placing it within the broader context of contemporary social theory, globalization research, and organizational studies in both in the United States and Europe.
Synopsis
This title gathers Meyer's widely-scattered work, reviewing four decades of scholarship, and adding several original pieces from his current work. It gathers substantive commentary on social processes, from stratification to globalisation to socialisation, and on key social institutions, from science to religion to law to education.
Table of Contents
Part I: Overview 1. World Society: A Theory and a Research Program in Context, Gili S. Drori and Georg Krucken
2. Reflections: Institutional Theory and World Society, John W. Meyer
Part II: Concepts and Processes
3. Rationalization: Ontology and Rationalization in the Western Cultural Account, John W. Meyer, John Boli, and George M. Thomas
4. Myth and Ritual: Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth, John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan
5. Actorhood: The "Actors" of Modern Society: The Cultural Construction of Social Agency, John W. Meyer and Ronald L. Jepperson
6. Diffusion: Institutional Conditions for Diffusion, David Strang and John W. Meyer
7. Globalization: Sources and Effects on National States and Societies, John W. Meyer
Part III: Applications
8. The Nation-State: World Society and the Nation-State, John W. Meyer, John Boli, George M. Thomas, and Francisco O. Ramirez
9. Education: The World Institutionalization of Education, John W. Meyer and Francisco O. Ramirez
10. Environment: the Structuring of a World Environmental Regime, 1870-1990, John W. Meyer, David J. Frank, Ann Hironaka, Evan Schofer, and Nancy Tuma
11. Management: Globalization and the Expansion and Standardization of Management, John W. Meyer
12. Science: World Society and the Authority and Empowerment of Science, Gili S. Drori, John W. Meyer, Francisco O. Ramirez, and Evan Schofer
13. Human Rights: World Society, the Welfare State, and the Life Course: An Institutionalist Perspective, John W. Meyer
14. The Individual: The Profusion of Individual Roles and Identities in the Postwar Period, David J. Frank and John W. Meyer
15. Law: Modern Law as a Secularized and Global Model: Implications for the Sociology of Law, Elizabeth Heger Boyle and John W. Meyer
16. The European Union: The European Union and the Globalization of Culture, John W. Meyer
17. Universities: the University in Europe and the World: Twentieth Century Expansion, John W. Meyer
Part IV: Bibliography of Meyer's Writings