ABSTRACT
In view of the undertaking of the book at hand, we will, in this chapter, compare neo-institutionalism (NI) and systems theory (ST). We do not aim at a comprehensive, systematic and abstract comparison of theories, but will, instead, turn to at least some empirical evidence. In order to explore theoretical capacities, we will ask what the social phenomenon of university rankings will look like through the particular lenses of these two sociological theories. We thereby expect that most of our readers 1 are familiar with this phenomenon or even have been personally confronted with it in one way or another.
