Family Affairs

Abstract

French Pragmatist sociology (FPS) and—more recently—the institutional logics (IL) perspective share an interest in micro-level actions, in particular, how individuals construct their identity and engage in material practices facing pluralist institutional contexts. IL researchers perceive the micro-level categories as directly determined by one or few dominant IL. In other words, the characteristics of society-level IL pervade all types of situations and are perceived as coordinating every kind of coordination between individuals. FPS, however, discusses pluralism with regard to different forms of grasping reality (regimes of engagement), which range from highly standardized situations to informal situations with little institutionalization. Only in standardized, public situations, individuals are likely to refer to higher common principles. I draw on an example that brings together family logic and the familiar regime of engagement to outline the differences between the IL and the French Pragmatist approach to individuals. Main points of departure are whether higher order common principles or logics dominate every kind of situation, what the appropriate level of analysis of micro-actions is, and how to empirically access them. I discuss the conceptual and epistemological implications for future studies.