The Role of Deliberate Silence in Institutional Change
提出有意沉默是一种促进制度变迁的文本形式，通过影响话语位置和内容，帮助变革推动者隐蔽地转移声音、提升问题化和新理论化的可见性，并削弱中央反对者的防御策略。
In this article, I develop insights into deliberate silence as a facilitator of institutional change. I argue that deliberate silence constitutes a form of text that can influence dynamics of discourse positions and discourse content, thereby affecting relationships among relevant actors as well as institutional dynamics. This makes it a useful resource for change proponents located at the center of fields to inconspicuously shift voice toward more peripheral allies, facilitate the visibility of problematizations and novel theorizations, and mitigate the effect of defense strategies from central opponents of change. Starting from a basic discourse-based model of institutional change, I show how a systematic acknowledgment of deliberate silence facilitates a better understanding of discursive dynamics. Specifically, I synthesize four types of deliberate silence—activating, suppressing, affirming, and concealing—in institutional change processes, and model a set of communication strategies based on these types of silence that support change in various ways. These ideas contribute to existing literature by suggesting novel ways of understanding how actors navigate barriers to institutional change, and how interactions between different types of actors during institutional dynamics unfold.