The Impact of Material Artifacts and Visual Representations on the Institutionalization of Innovations

Danish Research Fund

This research project inquires into the material and visual dimensions of institutional processes, which have largely escaped analytical inquiry so far. Addressing the current material and visual turn in the social sciences, the project illuminates the impact of material and visual artifacts on the institutionalization of innovations. Focus is given to the interaction between artifacts (their material and/or visual components) and audiences (their aesthetic and behavioral responses to artifacts) in the formation of new institutions, understood as collective taken-for-granted beliefs and associated Patterns of practice. Four empirical research projects will be undertaken, spanning from corporate social responsibility to concrete as a building material, modernist architecture, and city identity.
Project 1 (proejct leader Renate Meyer) focuses on visual representations and their role in processes of institutionalization.