The notion of institutional work was introduced to embody and extend several streams of research on institutional processes. Defined as “the purposive action of individuals and organizations aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions” (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006: 215), the idea of institutional work reflects a shift in focus from isomorphism to change (Dacin et al., 2002), deterministic effects of structures to actors’ power and agency in manipulating and even transforming the institutional order (Battilana et al., 2009; Greenwood et al., 2008), and large scale, macro-level inquiries which concentrate on structures and practices to an interest in micro-level ideational dynamics (Zilber, 2008). The concept of institutional work also holds promise by connecting to a broader range of analytical tools and methodological avenues than have traditionally been employed to consider institutional dynamics and effects (Lawrence et al. 2009). In this second international conference on institutional work, our aim is to revisit this concept by critically exploring new directions to develop (and problematize) it. In particular, our focus is on the relationship between institutions and work.