A typology of four institutional research perspectives in organizational sociology is offered with the intention of broadening what our subfield considers “institutional”: (a) social organization, (b) work and organization, (c) interactionism, and (d) cultural system. The case of the emergence of recycling in the U.S. solid waste field is drawn on to illustrate differences among these perspectives. The article advocates the view that organizational sociologists should draw from these diverse approaches as if they were theoretical resources in an institutional tool kit. This would make possible more eclectic multilevel approaches that should be attentive to the contingent nature of social action.
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