Challenging rational-choice and functionalist theories of society and organizational life, sociological neoinstitutionalist approaches have had great success in explaining similarities across world society. World society theory, in particular, stresses the role of culture, maintaining that institutions shape and limit the understanding of options open to actors. Empirical and theoretical accounts have focused on the role of intergovernmental and international nongovernmental organizations in shaping world culture. Recent scholarship has developed these approaches to also account for apparent local variations, domestication of global trends, and travels of ideas.

The aim of this special issue is to contribute to extending world society theory by attending more closely to the local-global interface. This call invites papers from scholars who approach social phenomena from a neoinstitutionalist perspective. Topics exploring local-global entanglements may include, for example, the dynamics of formation, diffusion and domestication of transnational models; regional institutions and practices; new conceptions of the 'global'; travel of ideas; and adaptation of worldwide cultural fashions. Theoretical papers as well as empirical studies that develop world society theory are welcome, as are both quantitative and qualitative analyses.

All articles will be subject to the journal’s usual practices of double-blind peer review and must conform to the journal requirements of length and format (see journal website at www.tandfonline.com/loi/recp20#.VMChh8aKpqs).Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Submissions must be made via the journal’s online submission system with the cover letter indicating that the manuscript is for this special issue.

The deadline for submissions is 30 November 2015.

Contributors are welcome to contact the guest editor: ali.qadir[at]uta.fi.