Work

Power, institutionalization, and temporality: Toward a political reconceptualization of social order

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: This article develops a critical analysis of the theoretical framework of social order proposed by Grothe-Hammer and Berkowitz. Their model offers a parsimonious, analytically decomposable account of order, yet its dimensions of “determination” and “variability” (articulated through non-decision and non-decidability) risk depoliticizing order if read in isolation from agency, power, and temporality. Drawing on sociological new institutionalism and critical theories of power, the article shows that every “non-decision” constitutes a sedimented human intervention. We propose a reformulation that complements the original dimensions with the concepts of institutionalization and alterability allowing social order to be reconceived as power institutionalized over time. Stability and change are read not as ontological properties, but as historical moments of the same dynamic, mediated by asymmetrical power relations. The framework recovers the political character of social order and enables the analysis of contemporary crises by treating apparently immutable configurations as historically constituted and analytically alterable.

Source: Critical Sociology

DOI: 10.1177/08969205261457817

Authors: Leandro Sebastián Fervier, Victoria Sanagustín-Fons, Ivan López

Institution: Universidad de Zaragoza

Language: English

Topic: Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,650