90 Brad K. Blitz discussed earlier. Sociologists have long sought to challenge the presentation of actors, including organizations, as rational and agentic; rather, they suggest that organizations operate in an environment constructed around social practices that give rise to institutional norms. One recurring theme is the notion of “institutional scripts.”89 Drawing upon Berger and Luckmann’s phenomenological approach,90 where the actor – be it an individual or organization – operates on a social stage and has a scripted identity that enacts a scripted action, for example, a role, Meyer argues that “actorhood” is also scripted by institutional structures. He claims that both actors (e.g., organizations) and actions (e.g., policies, decisions, innovations) have institutional scripts behind them: “The actor–action relation is a package, and as people and groups enter into particular forms of actorhood, the appropriate actions come along and are not usefully to be seen as choices and decisions.”91 Just as people fall into roles, so too do organizations. In this chapter, we might consider UNHCR’s reliance on statistical measures, its quest for indicators, and the use of results-based management as part of an institutional script. As Sarfaty argues, institutions draw their legitimacy from international legal instruments that rely on indicators to operationalize global norms and assess compliance. Indicators drive agendas – “what gets measured, gets done.”92 As UNHCR engaged in comprehensive management and structural reform, it followed the example of other UN agencies and turned to managerialist approaches that relied on the collection of measurable data to advance claims of greater accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness. One might argue that a restrictive understanding of UNHCR’s 1951 mandate reduces the numbers of stateless people under its remit, and hence helps to demonstrate success and better positions the agency to meet its ambition of ending statelessness. recommendations As the Conference of European Statisticians noted in 2008, UNHCR and its partners could improve the way they collect data on statelessness. There are some glimpses of progress, for example, in reporting on selected countries, where figures have been adjusted, as well as in recent conversations between UNHCR and critics who have presented compelling alternative methodologies, most notably the Center for Migration Studies (CMS).93 J. W. Meyer, “World Society, Institutional Theories, and the Actor” (2010) 36 Annual Review of Sociology 1–20. 90 P. L. Berger and T. Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 2010). 91 J. W. Meyer, “Reflections on Institutional Theories of Organizations,” in R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, and K. Sahlin (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2008), p. 792. 92 Sarfaty, “Regulating Through Numbers” at p. 588. 93 Kerwin et al., “Statelessness in the United States.” 89 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108914994 Published online by Cambridge University Press