Distributed agency and emergence of an organizational field

Abstract

We draw on an in-depth qualitative study of the palliative care sector in Kerala, India in order to develop a model of field emergence that links situated, everyday activities of individuals to macro-level institutional processes. We outline specific mechanisms by which proto-institutions are crafted and transmitted through everyday actions and interactions of individuals, as well as the precipitating and contextual conditions that trigger and enable these mechanisms. In so doing, we address micro-level aspects of field emergence and advance our understanding of the coordination of distributed agency.