Leveraging Legitimacy
Institutional Work and Change in the Case of Same-Sex Marriage
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2228124 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Abigail Ocobock (0000-0002-8937-8207, University of Notre Dame, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 126 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 513-544 |
| Publication date | 2020-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-9602 • E-ISSN: 1537-5390 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/712501 |
| OpenAlex | W3130349444 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 47 |
Institutions draw strict boundaries around included groups of people, and changing them typically requires professional advocating and lobbying work to introduce new laws or policies. Institutional scholars focus almost exclusively on how skilled, organizational actors initiate these changes, giving scant attention to what happens next. Yet legal or policy-driven change often occurs before there is widespread public approval for, or understanding of, it. How do we get from legal change to social change at normative and cognitive levels? Drawing on interview and survey data with 116 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer individuals who gained access to legal marriage, this article shows how beneficiaries of legal change do the institutional work necessary to transform it into something that carries social advantages. LGBQ individuals used legal inclusion to expand understandings of marriage and delegitimize continuing disrespect. I name this leveraging-legitimacy work and argue that, in doing it, the beneficiaries of change become crucial change agents in ongoing processes of institutionalization
Inclusion (mineral) · Institutionalisation · Law and economics · Legitimacy · Lesbian · Normative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Queer · Social change · Sociology · Transgender · Work (physics) · Gender Studies · Law · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Psychology · Social Psychology
Evolving Landscapes, Shifting Narratives
Resisting Heteroarchy in the United States
Polarization and Partitioning Representation
Meanings of migrant illegality
Same‐sex marriage legislation and implementation
Sexuality, Migration, and LGB Policy
Between Social and Legal Legitimations
Getting to the Pink Picket Fence
Policy Effects on Mixed-Citizenship, Same-Sex Unions
Making Civil Commitment
Learning From Strangers
Invisible Families
Theorizing Change
The Effect of a Supreme Court Decision Regarding Gay Marriage on Social Norms and Personal Attitudes
Institutional Work
Language from police body camera footage shows racial disparities in officer respect
Institutionalization and Structuration
Power Plays
Institutional Entrepreneurship In Mature Fields
The “Macro” and the “Micro” of Legitimacy
How Actors Change Institutions
Institutional Entrepreneurship in Emerging Fields
Inhabiting Institutions
Norm Perception as a Vehicle for Social Change
Legal Consciousness in Marginalized Groups
The Cultural Power of Law and the Cultural Enactment of Legality
Social Inclusion and the Value of Marriage Equality in Massachusetts and the Netherlands
Backlash or a Positive Response
Issue-Specific Opinion Change
The Polls
Backlash, Consensus, Legitimacy, or Polarization
The Iron Cage Revisited
Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics
Formal Rights and Informal Privileges for Same-Sex Couples
Invisible Inequality
Social Skill and Institutional Theory
The Significance of Living Together and Importance of Marriage in Same-Sex Couples
The Influence of Same-Sex Marriage on the Understanding of Same-Sex Relationships
How many cases do I need
Inhabited Institutions in New Destinations
Will Marriage Matter? Effects of Marriage Anticipated by Same-Sex Couples
How to Conduct a Mixed Methods Study
Cycles of Sameness and Difference in LGBT Social Movements
Status or Access? The Impact of Marriage on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer Community Change
The Power and Limits of Marriage
Keeping our Mission, Changing our System
The Extended Case Method
Institutionalized Organizations
Inhabited Institutions
Inhabitants Moving In
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,5 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2026 (5) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 10 |