Institutional Reincarnation:"" The Impossible Project"" of Reviving Analog Instant Photography

We explore the puzzle of how defunct institutionalized practices can be revived. Based on an inductive study of how “The Impossible Project” helped analog instant photography to be revived after its collapse in 2008, we identify the process of institutional reincarnation: The revival of a defunct institutionalized practice by bringing it back in a changed form. Our two-step process model suggests that focal actors can first rescue the institutionalized practice by salvaging core elements and then rejuvenate it by adapting it to current times. Paradoxically, the key elements of the institutionalized practice are first preserved as much as possible to avoid becoming irrecoverably lost before then being radically transformed to become sustainable once again. We contribute by outlining the characteristics of institutional revival as a new institutional trajectory and suggesting reincarnation work as a new type of institutional work.