5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

This session opens to a more general discussion of how we deal with the combination of IE and different theoretical approaches to sociological theory. The edited book about Institutional Ethnography in the Nordic Region from 2020 comprised several contributions from the members of the Nordic IE-network who had combined IE with recent approaches to sociological theory (Lund and Nielsen 2020). In the north American tradition, there is a tendency to avoid too many theoretical considerations and focus mainly on the empirical data, and this is obviously inspired by Dorothy Smidt’s effort to avoid the tendency among many sociologists to jump to theoretical generalizations instead of being focused on how real people act in real settings (Smith 2005, Smith ed. 2006). On the other hand, as Karin Wiederberg puts it in her introduction to the Nordic book: “For a start, it seems as if the perceived anti-theoretical approach of IE needs to be deconstructed and an IE approach that is hooked up to sociological theory to be outlined. (...) Hopefully this effort of mine can contribute to further theoretical discussions within and between the disciplines of IE and sociology.” (Widerberg 2020: 34).

With this point of departure, the aim of the session is to present different points of view as regard the relation between IE and sociological theory. Different experiences from specific investigations as well as more general epistemological considerations will be highly appreciated.