Immunizing Inefficient Field Frames for Mitigating Social Problems: The Institutional Work Behind the Technocratic Antidoping System

Henk E. Meier and Marcel Reinold

SAGE Open, 2018, vol. 8, issue 2, 2158244018780954

Abstract: Although the heavily expanded technocratic doping test system has failed to detect the most spectacular cases of performance enhancement and to eradicate doping as social problem, it enjoys social fact quality. Research presented here argues that the taken-for-granted character of the technocratic test system represents a prime example of institutional work. The technocratic test system became institutionalized and maintained because the agendas of field actors converged around a field frame, enjoying cultural resonance and, at first, strong pragmatic viability. The specific methods of frame stabilization employed by actors interested in institutional maintenance served to stabilize unrealistic policy expectations. The article aims to support these ideas by analyzing the trajectory of antidoping in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) based on rich archival sources.

Keywords: field frames; institutional work; doping; International Olympic Committee; technocratic approach (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:sagope:v:8:y:2018:i:2:p:2158244018780954

DOI: 10.1177/2158244018780954

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