Busting Out of the Iron Cage: Network Mobilization and Responses to Professional Prescriptions

Abstract

Institutions are undergirded by ongoing sets of social relations. The relationships that give rise to and reinforce institutions can be examined through a network perspective, one approach to which is examining network structure. The structural approach underestimates the role of agency in both institutional and network processes. The research herein examines the relationship between institutional agency and network agency by asking how network mobilization enables forms of social capital associated with institutional agency. The study of 415 contacts of 52 school managers shows those who mobilize networks of trusted, expert and influential contacts conform less to professional prescriptions promulgated by normative pressures in the field. Managers who mobilize networks of contacts who are accessible and endowed with material resources conform more. These findings suggest the importance of continued research on the mutually constitutive relationship between network and institutional processes.