Political work and institutional change: An analytical framework

Abstract

In order to study the origin of institutional changes in greater depth and more systematically than is often the case, this article develops a new conceptualisation of the term “political work”. Drawing on previous uses of this term, particularly by specialists of “politics as a trade” (métier politique), and in the sociology of work and public policy analysis, political work is defined here as an embodied process which entails the construction of public “problems” and policy instruments. This analysis places the legitimisation of the actors concerned, as well as of their respective projects, strategies and social relations, at the heart of research on this very process. The analytical framework generated by this definition is illustrated here by two case studies: one based on the observation of a single person (the European commissioner Leon Brittan) as a means of analysing the institutionalisation of the European Union's competition policy, the other centred on a network of Scottish agents who sought to take support from devolution of the UK to re-regulate the Scotch Whisky industry. By re-investing in the concept of political work in this way, the article as a whole seeks to initiate a dialogue between all social scientists interested in the sociology of institutional change or reproduction.