The Work of the Symbolic in Institutional Processes: Translations of Rational Myths in Israeli High Tech

Abstract

Using the discourse of high tech in Israel around the millennium as a case study, I explore institutionalization as translation. Whereas the meanings attached to high tech were derived from broad cultural frameworks, they were reconstructed in the context of high tech. Differences in construction were manifested at two times and at two levels: before the high-tech economic bubble and after it, and at the societal and organizational field levels. Thus, institutionalization involves the translation of generic rational myths into specific ones, which change over time in relation to material fluctuations and depend on the dynamics of local institutional spheres.