Pragmatism / Bottom-up Institutional Change
Term: Pragmatism / Bottom-up Institutional Change | Book: Lipstick on a Pig (financial bailouts): book profile and conceptual summary
Definition and core idea
In the book’s introduction, pragmatism refers to a bottom-up tendency which, amid distrust of institutions, asks what actually works and how people can build solutions suited to their own needs.
Explanation and elaboration
The book links part of the change to the personalisation of services and the emergence of participatory structures online. From this angle people are not merely consumers of institutional services; they can take part in producing, financing and governing solutions.
In institutional analysis, pragmatism does not mean setting theory aside; it means judging ideas by function, consequence and experience. A bottom-up approach can help local initiative and innovation, but generalisation, protecting rights, managing risk and coordinating infrastructure still need rules and oversight.
Notes and limits of interpretation
Separating claim from fact
The use of the word “pragmatist” in this work is part of the author’s conceptual frame; it should not be equated, without explanation, with all philosophical or political definitions of pragmatism.
Relations to other concepts
Review questions
- What problem does this concept clarify?
- Who benefits and who is harmed?
- What evidence is needed to test this claim in a real case?
- Which part is the author’s position and which part needs independent evidence?