ABSTRACT | This presentation outlines a neo-structural approach to institutional entrepreneurship. Network analyses are shown to be particularly useful in identifying actors who punch above their weight in politics thanks to their high, inconsistent (i.e. characterized by conflicts of interests) and cross-level social status. An empirical case focusing on the difficult emergence of a European intellectual property regime is used to illustrate this approach.
BIO | Emmanuel Lazega is Professor of Sociology at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and a member of the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations (CNRS). His current research projects focus on the dynamics of multilevel networks in regulation and institutionalization processes. He is the author and co-editor of several books, for example, The Collegial Phenomenon, Oxford University Press; Micropolitics of Knowledge, Aldine-de Gruyter; Conventions and Structures in Economic Organization, edited with Olivier Favereau, Edward Elgar Publishing; Multilevel Network Analysis for the Social Sciences, edited with Tom A.B. Snijders, Springer; Knowledge and Networks, edited with Johannes Glueckler and Ingmar Hammer. His publications can be downloaded from http://www.elazega.fr.