ABSTRACT
A conception of policy-making and planning as a form of generative action, caught up in a tension between the aim of effectiveness, innovation and discovery, requires a revision of the conception of some fundamental aspects of the institutionalization of social phenomena. Attention in this chapter is devoted to three selected but paramount dimensions of institutionalization processes, identified in the definition and sharing of rules, in the development of networks, and in the interplay of social roles. The aim is to highlight the nature of the social mechanisms involved in their construction and to understand their meaning for a critical approach to interactive planning and policy-making processes, introducing to a discussion of issues collective action as a paradigmatic field for in rethinking their institutional dimension.
