Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/54599 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
WZB Discussion Paper No. SP II 2011-110
Publisher: 
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB), Berlin
Abstract: 
Most work studying micro-processes of integration - i.e. how agents develop identities and decision-making behaviours within a particular institution - offers explanations based on either instrumental rationality or socialisation. This article proposes a twodimensional framework that allows analysing under which conditions both logics of social action co-exist. Our empirical analysis employs a unique dataset from a 2011 survey of all 1098 currently active Seconded National Experts (SNEs) in the European Commission, and is supportive the model's theoretical predictions. We find that a) instrumental cost-benefit calculation and cognitive role-playing (as semi-reflexive socialisation) often simultaneously influence SNEs' (perceptions of their) behaviour, and b) this joint presence of both logics of social action depends on certain scope conditions (i.e., SNEs' education, length of prior embeddedness and noviceness).
Subjects: 
Socialisation
rational action
European Commission
Seconded National Experts
survey
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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