An institutional perspective on the micro-macro link

Résumé 0

"The micro-macro link may be regarded as a dynamic process in which actorsinterpret local patterns of relations as indicators or elements of an overarchingstructure, communicate their interpretations, and adjust their relations to theoverall structure as they perceive it. In this paper, it is proposed that actorsperceive local substructures in a network of evaluations, such as dyads, triads, orshort semicycles, and infer clustering and ranking in ways that are compatible withbalance-theoretic models. They interpret and communicate the information assimplified and idealized classifications resembling blockmodels, to which they adjusttheir relations afterwards. In this way, the ego-centered and socio-centeredperspectives are dynamically related.This approach is applied to evaluations among authors and critics in the literaryinstitution. At the micro level, literary authors and critics adjust their evaluations toprevious evaluations. At the global level, the institution of literature is stratified intoclusters, e.g., literary movements and styles. The members of this institutionreflect on its structure: classifications according to movement and style arecommunicated and discussed in literary criticism"