Institutional arrangements vs social arrangements

These overlap, but they are not identical.

Institutional arrangements

These are arrangements connected to formal organizations, rules, procedures and official roles.

Examples:

University funding rules

Journal peer-review procedures

Promotion criteria

Government research grants

University curriculum committees

For example:

A university requires three peer-reviewed publications for promotion from associate professor to professor.

That is an institutional arrangement.

Social arrangements

These are patterns of relationships, expectations, networks and informal practices among people.

For example:

Historians tend to cite scholars from prestigious universities more frequently.

That may not be a formal rule.

It can be a social pattern.

Another example:

Young scholars learn that certain senior scholars are considered the leading authorities in their field.

There may be no written rule saying this.

It is a social arrangement or expectation.

In simple terms

Institutional is the formal organizational structures and rules.

Social is the relationships, norms, expectations and informal patterns among people.

They can interact.

For example:

A formal promotion system rewards publications.

Scholars develop an informal expectation:

“Publishing in Journal X is especially valuable for promotion.”

The formal institutional arrangement and informal social expectation reinforce each other.