ABSTRACT
Institutions are considered as crescive and enacted, natural sprouts and rational initiatives at the same time, in various proportions. They keep a link with the collective experience of the communities in which they are grounded. These communities never stop facing challenges and defining problems, stating values, fighting around issues, secreting organizational and cultural forms – not differently from ants or bees, but with a greater flexibility that the one allowed by instincts – and projecting purposes that the institutions take in charge (process of natural selection). Institutions are thus specific organizations, which seem to act as ecological units, with a certain autonomy and individuality that make them recognizable – and even some kind of sovereignty and authority over their members. Inside the organizations, an informal structure unfolds below flowcharts, legal rules, and formal offices. This has a methodological consequence: institutions can be only explored through a close-up field, in-depth interview, and documentary inquiry.
