“Devils May Sit Here:” The Role of Enchantment in Institutional Maintenance
通过研究苏格兰律师这一古老职业，分析组织空间如何通过安置、空间演绎和迷魅三种现象交织，稳定制度并维持封闭与地位秩序，强调情感和美学在制度维持中的重要性。
This paper contributes to the literature on maintenance of institutions by analyzing the case of an old profession—Scottish advocates. Drawing on the neo-institutional perspective on professions, we address the question, what role does organizational space play in institutional maintenance? We draw on our ethnographic study to make a three-fold contribution. Firstly, our case study shows how spaces, and how institutional actors interacting with them, have a stabilizing effect on the institution, which leads to two important outcomes: maintenance of closure and reproduction of the status order. Secondly, we show how three spatial phenomena underpinning this stabilizing process are intertwined, thus enabling the process of institutional maintenance: (1) emplacement, (2) enactment of space, and (3) enchantment of space. Thirdly, by foregrounding the role of enchantment evoked by organizational spaces, we highlight the importance of the emotional and aesthetic aspects of institutional maintenance.