I have been writing almost non-stop for a month and a half. My life has been institutions this, institutions that everyday for a month. It just keeps going. But, it's almost over. Then I graduate!
Despite the fact that I've been saying the same things over and over, the past couple of days seem to have come with a kinda breakthrough in my thought. It's nothing really grandiose, just another angle that I like. I'm not sure if any of it will make it into the final draft, but we'll just have to see. It's basically taking the theory of institutions apart and making each component a factor of its own through which we can arrange social influence in general.
What will this research become? Since I'll be doing this kinda stuff for the rest of my career, I think it'll become a lot. And I haven't really gotten tired of it, just tired of writing much of the same stuff over and over. I had most of my paper sitting around in my thoughts for most of the semester and now I'm writing it all down. That's what really makes it seem repetitive. BUT, I think I can take this notion of institutions to more arenas and use the new breakthrough to develop a more general theory. It's making the old new again.
At this point, once the theses are done and what not, I would like to get some of this research published. Before I can do that, I would like to go to a sociology conference and get some discipline-specific feedback to get a sense of how it would be received. Unfortunately, there really aren't any sociology conferences in the near future. So, I think I'll wait on it.
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Jason,
I am glad you are thinking about how to shape your work for future purposes. You are doing some potentially important research and thinking.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that the institutionalization of nearly every aspect of our lives has permanent, and perhaps unfortunate, implications for the general quality of human life.
It is a truism that once an institution forms, its self-perpetuation, not to say increase in power and influence, becomes its primary goal, no matter how altruistic and service oriented its original purpose was.
In politics, the current party system is an example, I think.
Keep up this interesting work and we hope to be reading your books in about ten years or so.
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