Examples of institutions (real or fictional) that blur or cross categories in unexpected ways.

• Typically public/state functions being performed by a non-state actor

  • Snow Crash has **multiple examples of blurring between state, private and underworld functions: Mafia as quasi-state with openly functioning FBI-style law enforcement apparatus; franchised embassies; privatised national defence groups

  • Hezbollah's extensive work in delivering social services (hospitals, schools, news, etc) to the Lebanese Shia population, building political support and helping to legitimise its paramilitary activities (ref)

  • Private military contractors - perhaps more blurred today than in the past, since there is a stronger monopoly on state use of violence now; mercenaries were normal in pre-Westphalian times

    Goliath / New Rules of War

  • Company-states like the British and Dutch East India Companies

    Outsourcing Empire

    • Fictional company-states such as Weyland-Yutani and the metanationals in Red Mars

  • Shift of crewed spaceflight from publicly-operated to commercial via e.g. SpaceX

• A stereotypically one-dimensional organisation visibly taking on aspects of other organisations that seem incongruous with its core purpose

  • Al Qaeda's bureaucracy of expense reports and performance reviews (ref)

  • Similar corporate practices for major drug cartels

    Narconomics

  • Any time a movie shows corporate or industrial detail for a fairytale (e.g. Pixar short Prep & Landing: flight control at Santa's Workshop - ref)

• Anachronistic sub-units of an institution that has a historically fixed stereotype

  • Ensign Peak - the Mormon Church's $100B investment fund (ref)

  • In-Q-Tel - the CIA's venture capital arm

  • Potentially others as per:

    What is the useful modern version of...

  • The Twitter bot Concept Collider generates random combinations of concepts that might provide ideas for blurred institutions.

  • Cyberpunk style blurring of high tech and old institutions

  CNC Stone Carving - Carmelite Gothic

  

<aside> ⚙ Operationalise Ask whether an existing institution's purpose could function with a different mode of operation. Could a charity's work be more effectively served if it functioned more like an investment bank or a venture capital firm? Or vice versa: would a service culture rather than a transactional culture help a deal-making firm to drive better results?

Is there space for a new organisation, set up in a novel way, to tackle a problem set? What organisational forms existed in the past but don't exist now — perhaps without any good reason?

Is a competing organisation vulnerable because it has to endure more bureaucracy or other processes than you'd immediately expect from thinking about it stereotypically?

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