Theorizing status intermediaries

Throughout Chapter 2, I build a theoretical framework that will allow me to explore how the ERC was constructed into an authoritative status intermediary in the European science field. To craft this framework, I begin by synthesizing a broad range of literature that deals with status, how status is created, and what consequences status typically brings about. Although my synthesis initially provides a wide backdrop, I subsequently place my main focus on the role of intermediaries, arguing that they arbitrate status-creating processes by assessing and suggesting certain candidates as particularly worthy of deference from audiences. While previous literature has examined the pervasive consequences generated by authoritative status intermediaries, I round off Chapter 3 by claiming that the concept of fields will help us understand how the authority of status intermediaries is successively constructed in dynamic interactions with candidates and audiences.