Institutions. What are they?

We can see institutions in a number of ways. For example, the police drama The Wire is comprised of institutions such as police, gangs, unions, city council and journalism. But there is also a well known institution that is used all around the world. That is the institution of marriage. Or ‘marri-arge’ to quote Little Britain. It is:

• governed by rules and expectations – faithful, values, loyalty
• Framed by a legal document and regulation
• Religion – another institution enmeshed with it.
• Widely accepted and practiced
• Cultural norms and rules
• Ceremony/rituals/symbols – rings
• Witnessing
• Government intervening, eclipsing the church’s role.
• Symbology – blue dress, white dress, tossing of bouquet
• Performed in cultural narratives – romantic love, kinship – family starts, extended with relatives and reproducing
• Wedding Industry – Commercial industry – photography, reception centres.

Apart from this relationship contract, there are the more obvious examples like Media Institutions.  These can include:

• ABC
• The News
• Journalism
• Newscorp
• Cinema
• Broadcast TV
• Community Radio
• PBS, RRR

Then there’s the Contemporary Institutions like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google, Newscorp, and other social networking sites.

REFLECTIONS

It was interesting to note that schools were noted as institutions by Michel Foucault, so this idea that institutions are about social control is a salient point. Do people act better or worse once the context is removed? It can be, as much as control, the glue that keeps people together eg. work friends.
Institutions also carry status like the BBC or Guardian or a low status like The Herald Sun or The Courier. Institutions give a legitimacy/illegitimacy and authority/no authority depending on how they are perceived by people outside and inside them. For example, Harvard University as opposed to going to Footscray University. One carries more academic status than the other.