Postface: Exploring the material in institutional theory

This article examines the relationship between materiality and institutional theory in three parts. The first part explores the material basis of institutions. It is drawn from the keynote speech that I delivered to OAP at the 2016 Lisbon conference and the chapter that I was developing at that time with colleagues—Renate Meyer, Dennis Janczary and Markus Hollerher. I focused on materiality whereas they focused on the role of visuality in institutional theory. The chapter, “The material and visual basis for institutions” has been published in the Greenwood, Oliver, Lawrence and Meyer (2018) Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. The second part examines the chapters of the current volume, many of whose authors attended the OAP Lisbon conference, presented their work and engaged in fruitful dialogue. The result of the conference and dialogue is many chapters that enlighten our understanding of the relationships between materiality and institutional logics, institutional work and legitimation. The third part, I conclude by offering a few thoughts on the gaps in and directions for future research in materiality and institutional theory.