Wednesday, 11th April, 3.00pm, F1030
Department of Politics and Public Administration Seminar

Embeddedness as a Concept: Propositions, Characteristics and Determination
Damien Bolger (University of Limerick)

Abstract:

New-institutionalist theory proffers a number of perspectives with which to view the political and societal world. In particular these perspectives each provide a means to understanding the embeddedness of political institutions (Lowndes 2010: 70). With regard to the political then, those same perspectives have been used to investigate institutions, organisations and policy while instigating debate about the continual position and repositioning of the politico-administrative institutions in society. However, what has not been so clear, or indeed so rigorously investigated is the concept of embeddedness within either the institutional arena or indeed the active determination of embeddedness as a key aspect of the nature of public administration. In particular the embedding of ‘new’ institutions within the already complex landscape of the politico-administrative system is arguably subject to a number of complex processes and junctures. In taking this as a starting point, the core aim of this paper is to prompt discussions on what institutional embeddedness means, providing a series of definitional points of view. This paper then puts forward a series of core characteristics from which the concept of embeddedness begins to take shape in terms of institutional and organisational positioning. From there, it offers a means to determine the embeddedness of ‘new’ institutions within the politico administrative system, based on a series of propositions developed from the theoretical and methodological framework of the paper.