An Organization and Management faculty recruitment colloquium is scheduled on Friday, January 17, 2014. Candace Jones of Boston College will be the candidate/speaker.

Her presentation “Let’s Get concrete!: Institutional logics, aesthetic responses and the introduction of a new material” will be held from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm in SB 112.

Below is an abstract of her colloquium.

A new material creates uncertainty about its use and appropriateness. This study focuses on a new building material—concrete—which architects began to use during the turn of the 1900s. Using data from professional architectural journals in France and the United States during 1890 to 1939, we reveal that institutional professional logics moderated the adoption of concrete, varying between France and the United States, rather than being driven by dynamics of substitution for traditional building materials that dominate strategy and technology studies. We find that in France, the professional logic was married with a State logic that regulated the production and use of concrete in buildings after a concrete building collapsed. In contrast, the professional logic was married with a market logic, where manufacturers cooperated to create product standards and who appealed to architects as consumers. In contrast, to dominate institutional theories which highlight imitation of established practices and exemplars as the basis for legitimacy, our study shows that imitation of the established and dominant material stone delegitimated concrete as a building material. Instead the process of legitimation required theorizing concrete as unique, possessing its own aesthetic and appropriate to new kinds of buildings.

If you would like lunch at Professor Candace Jones’ colloquia, or would like to get on her schedule please contact Vanessa Ly at vanessml@exchange.uci.edu.