Symbolische Ordnungen

Today, it often seems as if in a world of global networks and individualization institutions were of declining importance. The critical theory of institutions examines mechanisms of production, stabilization and changes of “symbolic orders”, even in a historical-comparative perspective. Institutional processes are characteristic for individual as well as collective social relations, from pair formation to complex organizational structures. They have a stabilizing effect through forms of self-symbolization: These include an institutional construction of a specific history (e.g. by the suggestion of continuity through special time orders, anniversaries), institutionally defined spaces (from the sacred grove up to impressive forms of architecture), the canonization of knowledge etc. Starting from these key categories it will be possible to show also the typical dual structure of institutional power: its increase through visibility on the one hand and power concealment by institutional guiding ideas on the other hand.