The Competent Actor

Abstract

Traditional institutional analysis and the conceptualization of a competent actor—an ordinary individual at times culturally disembedded and capable of proactively engaging with institutional complexity—have not made the best bedfellows so far. This is about to change. Limitations in the institutional logics perspective regarding its microfoundations are now beginning to be addressed and attention has shifted to the theorizing of actorhood. Recent work on institutional biography and reflexivity stresses the importance of agency in bringing the actor back into the debate around institutional logics or institutional orders in a broader sense. This commentary speaks to the growing research interest in actor’s “on the ground” dealing with multiple logics. The notion of the competent actor and its potential to be further developed from an institutional logics perspective together with French pragmatist sociology are discussed.

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