Dynamics of institutionalization in pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial society

The author proposes a model of the dynamics of social institutions, based on the information approach to the definition of this concept. Institutionalization involves the construction of social reality, which further leads to its objectification in the form of special norms of behavior, modes of action of social actors, as well as the creation of special institutions and organizations. The process of institutionalization ends with the construction of a consistent dominant symbolic universe, the basis of which is a certain way of thinking and understanding of the social world. Symbolic universes that dominated at other stages social development are assigned the role of peripheral and marginal ones. In the dynamics of social and institutional development, it is proposed to distinguish four stages: latent, structured institutionalization, institutional exhaustion and institutional transformation. The article discusses the proposed model on the examples of the development of social institutions of religion, science and image in pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial society. The hypothesis is substantiated that in a pre-industrial society, faith acts as the dominant way of cognition and formation of the symbolic universe, and religion is a social institution legitimizing it. In industrial society, it is rational systematized knowledge and science, and in post-industrial society, it is the image and cyberspace.