The term “institution” is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of the government and public services. As structures and mechanisms of social order, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, such as political science, anthropology, economics, and sociology. Institutions are also a central concern for law, the formal mechanism for political rule-making and enforcement.

While institutions tend to appear to people in society as part of the natural, unchanging landscape of their lives, study of institutions by the social sciences tends to reveal the nature of institutions as social constructions, artifacts of a particular time, culture and society, produced by collective human choice, though not directly by individual intention.

Speaking engagements will talk about these observations and how this influences our lives. Moreover, speakers will look at all aspects of institutions and institutional structures that are part of our everyday life.