Buildings and Institutional Change: Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?

Abstract

AbstractThis study aims to throw some theoretical light on the relationship between institutions and the buildings housing them, particularly in the context of institutional change. Drawing on my ethnographic study of the UK Parliament buildings in London, I put forward a framework for analysing the effects that buildings and the artifacts within them may have on institutional change. This framework consists of three elements: (1) buildings enabling or constraining the activities performed inside; (2) spatial hierarchy; and (3) buildings as a resource. My intention is to draw scholars’ attention to the notion of buildings as sites of contestation – places where conflicts over nature and the extent of institutional change are played out. I conclude that redesigning buildings might be seen as a stepping stone to change, but also that buildings can be used to resist change and maintain the status quo. Although buildings ‘inhabited’ by institutions may appear to stand still, they never do; they change in time, both enabling and constraining those who use them and they have an ability to ‘act back’.