From Catch-and-Harvest to Catch-and-Release: Multimodality and Deinstitutionalization

In this paper, we join research on deinstitutionalization with the multimodal turn in organization studies to explore how organizations can use visual and material artifacts to assault longstanding practices. We adopt an interpretive approach using magazine cover images to explore the deinstitutionalization of catch-and-harvest fly fishing practices in the United States, spotlighting organizational strategies around multimodality, including “material scrubbing” and “distancing the gaze.” We also detail how organizations can repackage material artifacts linked to practices that have fallen out of fashion as a distinct type of historical capital. This article expands prior research on deinstitutionalization, which has long emphasized the use of discourse, to also include how organizations might deploy visuality and materiality relative to cases of deinstitutionalization.