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Karl Weick’s sensemaking perspective has proven to be a central influence on process theories of organizing. Yet, one persistent criticism levelled at his work has been a neglect of the role of larger social and historical contexts in sensemaking. We address this critique by showing how institutional context is a necessary part of sensemaking. We propose that there are salient but unexplored connections between the institutional and sensemaking perspectives. We explain how three specific mechanisms — priming, editing and triggering — bring institutional context into processes of sensemaking, beyond a more conventional notion of internalized cognitive constraint. Our contribution seeks to be forward-looking as much as reflective, addressing a critique of one of Karl Weick’s key theoretical contributions and offering amendments that extend its reach.

I distinguish two types of macroeconomic models. The first type are top-down models in which some or all agents are capable of understanding the whole picture and use this superior information to determine their optimal plans. The second type are bottom-up models in which all agents experience cognitive limitations. As a result, these agents are only capable of understanding and using small bits of information. These are models in which agents use simple rules of behavior. These models are not devoid of rationality. Agents in these models behave rationally in that they are willing to learn from their mistakes. These two types of models produce a radically different macroeconomic dynamics. I analyze these differences.

This two-part study begins with a rhetorical analysis of the genre of earnings press releases. Then, a quantitative analysis uses capital markets data to assess the investor impact of tone and other stylis-tic attributes. The genre analysis explores the regulatory context, structural attributes, and dual infor-mational-promotional role of earnings press releases, using individual releases as illustrations. The quantitative analysis explores the relation between the stock market reaction to earnings press releases and quantitative measures of style developed using elementary computer-based content analysis of a corpus of releases. Results suggest that tone influences investors ’ reactions. An expla-nation for this result is provided by prospect theory, which predicts that framing financial perfor-mance in positive terms causes investors to think about the results in terms of increases relative to reference points. Results also suggest that longer press releases reduce the market impact of unex-pected earnings.

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Abstract: We develop a behavioral macroeconomic model in which agents use simple but biased rules to forecast future output and inflation. This model generates endogenous waves of optimism and pessimism (“Animal Spirits”) that are generated by the correlation of biased beliefs. We contrast the dynamics of this model with a stylized DSGE-version of the model and we study the implications for monetary policies. One of our main results is that strict inflation targeting is suboptimal because it gives more scope for waves of optimism and pessimism to emerge thereby destabilizing output and inflation.

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The reorganization of the local material order, brought about by economic development efforts in the so-called developing world, is, to a large extent, dependent on how efficient these efforts are in reorganizing the symbolic order. In this transformational process, the creation of new institutions and with them new institutionalized rituals, is a widely employed resource. This research uses sociosemiotic theories to study the transformations of meanings that characterize these moments of social change. I describe, through three case analyses, the major elements of the microphysics of the meaning transformations that take place during institutionalized rituals. On the theoretical side, this research had the purpose of showing how a body of theory, that became known as metapragmatics, can be fruitfully applied to domains broader than verbal communication- in this case the analysis of the key role of institutionalized rituals as arenas in which semiotic transformations enable political change to take place. This research focuses on how economic development efforts bring with them new ways of conceptualizing and making use of the environment. This is particularly relevant in areas in which the climate is seen as a main constraint for development, as in semi-arid

In January 2008, an interdisciplinary panel of leading scientists gathered for a press conference at the National Academies headquarters in Washington, DC. The experts had been charged with authoring a revised edition of Science, Evolution, and Creationism (2008). As the news conference participants described, the report had been carefully designed to provide an authoritative account of evolutionary science, communicated in a manner that would be more accessible to an audience of school board members, journalists, teachers, activist parents, and clergy. “Where evolution debates occur in the country, scientists and others call us for help and the major tool we provide is this booklet ” said committee member Bruce Alberts, editor of Science, and past president of the National Academies. At least a dozen different ways of explaining evolutionary science were available to the committee. But instead of relying on intuition and personal experience to decide among competing narratives, the experts took an “audience-based ” approach to communication. As staffers would later recount, the Academies commissioned focus groups and a national survey to gauge the extent of citizens ’ understanding of the processes, nature, and limits of science. They also specifically wanted to test various “frames, ” interpretative storylines that explained why alternatives to

In rational choice theory, individuals are assumed always to choose the option that will provide them maximum utility. But actual choices must be based on subjective perceptions of the attributes of the available options, and the accuracy of these perceptions will always be limited by the information-processing capacity of one’s nervous system. I propose a theory of valuation errors under the hypothesis that perceptions are as accurate as possible on average, given the statistical properties of the environment to which they are adapted, subject to a limit on processing capacity. The theory is similar to the “rational inattention” hypothesis of Sims (1998, 2003, 2011), but modified for closer conformity with psychophysical and neurobiological evidence regarding visual perception. It can explain a variety of aspects of observed choice behavior, including the intrinsic stochasticity of choice; focusing effects; decoy effects in consumer choice; reference-dependent valuations; and the co-existence of apparent risk-aversion with respect to gains with apparent risk-seeking with respect to losses. The theory provides optimizing foundations for some aspects of the prospect theory of Kahneman and Tversky (1979).