Elke Weik, University of Leicester,
[email protected] The Birth of the University – An Emergent Institutionalist Perspective FIRST DRAFT – MARCH 2009 The present paper investigates processes of institution building. In contrast to most of what presently is discussed in this field, I want to establish and apply an emergent perspective, i.e. a perspective that views institution building as a long term process that is not dependent on the activities of individual actors. As I will argue in the paper, the emergent perspective can be portrayed as the more intuitive, more modest but hopefully more realistic perspective on institution buidling. If we define institutions with Giddens (1993) as entities with a large time-space extension, it is difficult to see how particular actors, who by definition can only cover a small time-space extension, can found institutions. The present discussion concerning institutional entrepreneurship obviously takes its clues from the founding of organizations, but in theoretical terms organizations are a very different case. My suspicion is that the managerialist bias of Management and Organization Studies coupled with the strong individualist touch of UK and US national culture – where many authors originate from – leads the field to some notions that may not prove effective in the long run. As a case study, I have chosen the foundation of the University of Paris in the latter half of the 12th century. The University of Paris not only was the most prestigious university in the 1 Elke Weik, University of Leicester,
[email protected] Middle Ages but also became the role model after which all later European universities were fashioned.