Deinstitutionalization as a cumulative process: the role of successive struggles in the case of a "magic mineral".

Relying on the case of asbestos in France, we study a deinstitutionalization process as a result of successive and cumulative struggles. There are competing interests in specific institutional arrangements. Actors who want to disrupt institutions have to face with other actors who benefit from the existing order. We emphasize the longitudinal role of these struggles and depict deinstitutionalization as a process that is achieved over a long period. Most struggles do not succeed in disrupting a practice but produce residues that slightly change rules, beliefs, cognitive schemes and practices. We explore the longitudinal evolution of discourse from 1920 to 1997 concerning asbestos and analyze the impacts of successive struggles. In that way, we explain changes that are reflected by discourse. Discourse analysis partially relies here on Prospéro, a piece of software devoted to the exploration of texts produced in a contestation context.