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Growth of an Organizational Field for Infrastructure: US, State, and Local Fusion Centers, 2001-2012

Developing information infrastructure entails changing organizations and institutions. Such changes sometimes proceed relatively smoothly, but often meet with “friction.” This paper describes the development of a national infrastructure for sharing of information among government agencies and highlights how the social, organizational and institutional changes necessary for information sharing have occurred relatively effectively. In less than ten years, the US National Network of Fusion Centers has implemented technologies and processes for sharing “threat-related” information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies across local, state and federal levels of government. Institutionally, the growth of this infrastructure has entailed developing an organizational field of state and urban area Fusion Centers. The paper describes key technological, organizational and institutional factors shaping development of this field, particularly those of institutional logics and the influence of a central agency via multiple self-reinforcing dynamics. Implications for theory, practice and research are discussed.