Institutional formation and power: research on the social contruction of the city.

Abstract

This article develops a conceptual and methodological framework to study the formation of institutions designed to intervene on fragments of the urban landscape. Using some theoretical insights from Giddens and Foucault, I reformulate the notion of institution, which is here understood as a set of rules operating across functional levels. This approach allows accounting for the power relations that they represent as well as for the channels open for the exercise of power over the population and urban space. Likewise, this methodological strategy permits to relate the local conditions under which specific projects are executed and national or global policies. In this vein, I suggest using the typology of social rules suggested by Ostrom in a five-stage research strategy. Finally, I discuss the theoretical implications of this line of investigation, stressing its utility to decipher power relations implicated in processes of urban change.