Towards a concrete model of theorization processes in institutional innovation
Résumé
How do innovations become institutionalized? Central to institutionalization is the legitimation of an innovation. Legitimation involves a process of theorization whereby the innovation’s promoters conceptualize chains of cause and effects that encapsulate the properties of an innovation (Strang & Meyer, 1993). While rhetorical or discursive processes have been studied extensively, only scant attention has been paid to the role of material artifacts in theorization processes. We explore in this paper the role of material artifacts in shaping theorization processes. Our empirical analysis is multimodal and focuses on concrete as a new building material. We examine early exemplars of concrete buildings.