Abstract

A detailed account of social institutions in force is presented. Social institutions are regarded as special collectively constructed social practices that are normatively governed—in part by constitutive norms. At bottom, institutions are group-level phenomena accountable in terms of the we-mode. However, in actual life, institutional activities normally also include I-mode activities that accordingly can be said to have colonized the realm of we-mode institutional action. Institutional practices or items in them centrally have a special institutional status—including a conceptual, social, normative component. It is shown that the we-mode, collectivity, sociality (in a constructivist sense), and institutionality go together.