Roles and Institutions

This chapter develops a relational sociological account of the interplay of networks of social relationships with wider culture around the notions of role and institution. Roles mediate between the structure of social networks and institutionalized cultural patterns: On the one hand, they can emerge in small-scale network contexts and crystallize as long as the network structure persists. On the other hand, communication draws on institutionalized models to reduce its complexity and uncertainty. Relational institutions thereby imprint social networks by role categories. Such relational institutions include cultural models for actorhood, for social relationships (“relationship frames”), and for patterns of relationships. The chapter combines the general perspective of relational sociology with arguments from social network research, role theory, philosophical anthropology, and neo-institutionalism.