PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Roles and institutions lead to the reduction of uncertainty in communication, and to a particular pattering of social networks. Cultural patterns for actorhood, for social relationships, and for patterns of relationships are conceptualized as "relational institutions" that structure social networks as cultural models. Roles mediate between the structure of social networks and institutionalized cultural patterns: On the one hand, they can emerge in small-scale network contexts and crystallize as long as the network structure persists. On the other hand, communication draws on institutionalized models to reduce its own complexity and uncertainty. Thus, relational institutions imprint social networks through role categories. In order to elaborate on this relational conception of institutions and roles, the text combines arguments from social network research, from the normative and the interpretive role concept, from philosophical anthropology and neo-institutionalism with the general perspective of relational sociology.