Research Seminar: The Emergence, Institutionalization and structuring of an Organizational field: an analysis of a sector’s history

This article examines how movement-like behavior by common citizens contribute to institutional change and the creation of new industries and how these are challenged and destabilized by emergent processes. We build on current efforts to bridge social movement in sociology and institutional perspectives to study a period of time involving complex transformations, such as a transition from social movement to high investment institutions. Drawing on the case of how the Danish district heating movement enabled the rise of an institutionalized and regulated Danish district-heating sector, we argue that the complexity is not resolved and that both elements co-exist as the transition never finished. Consequently, the study contributes new insights into theories of institutional development, social movements, and sector emergence.