How Institutions Think: Between Contemporary Art and Curatorial Discourse

Taking its title from Mary Douglas's 1986 book, "How Institutions Think", this anthology reconsiders the practices, habits, models and rhetoric of the institution and the anti-institution in contemporary art and curating. Contributors consider the institution as an object of inquiry across many disciplines, including political theory, organizational science and sociology. They reflect upon how institutions inform art, curatorial, educational an research practices as much as they shape the world around us.

The first part, "Thinking via Institutions", moves from the particular to the general; the second part, "Thinking about Institutions", considers broader questions about institutional frameworks. The introduction is co-authored by the editors: Paul O'Neill, Lucy Steeds and Mick Wilson. Contributors listed on the back of the book (see image).

"How Institutions Think" is the second in a series of three publications, building upon the success of "The Curatorial Conundrum: What to Study? What to Research? What to Practice?" (The MIT Press, 2016).