Social Contracts and Economic MarketsSpringer, 2007 M08 20 - 218 pages The thesis of this book is that people enter into social contracts because they are different from one another and have incentives to cooperate. In economic life, people have identical interests—namely, their own se- interests—so they have an incentive to compete. The social worlds that we create, or map, and those that are already mapped for us are increasingly complex, and thus the tracking of rationality is not so straightforward, although it is everywhere evident. In a sense, this book grew out of two questions: Why hasn't the United States had a second revolution? Or is the revolution yet to come? Many have discussed the current crises that confront contemporary society, such as great economic inequalities, poverty, the declining quality of jobs, the growing power of corporate elites, and racial antago nisms. I attempt to understand these problems in terms of the radical restructuring of social life by economic and spatial forces. My specula tive thesis is that social organizations must reinforce social contracts and nurture the opportunities for them to be forged. However, contemporary organizations, particularly economic ones, have internalized the princi ples of economic markets, thereby inducing competition and easing out cooperation. In defining social contracts, I draw from Rousseau and also from Marx and his analysis of use value. One hopes that new organiza tional forms based on principles of democracy and community will evolve. In a diverse, multicultural society, this requires great mutual understanding and cooperation and the recognition of differences. |
From inside the book
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Page viii
... deal with contracts and markets , structure and agency , competition and cooperation . Specifically , after positioning my arguments about the problem of reflexivity in the social sciences in Chapter 1 , I consider issues of social ...
... deal with contracts and markets , structure and agency , competition and cooperation . Specifically , after positioning my arguments about the problem of reflexivity in the social sciences in Chapter 1 , I consider issues of social ...
Page ix
... deal to me . Ivar , as well as Rekha Mirchandani and Peter Blau , read the entire last draft and provided insightful comments on my arguments and challenged me on many points . Not all their criticisms have been satisfactorily resolved ...
... deal to me . Ivar , as well as Rekha Mirchandani and Peter Blau , read the entire last draft and provided insightful comments on my arguments and challenged me on many points . Not all their criticisms have been satisfactorily resolved ...
Page 1
... deal with differences in order to make the best of them so that we can achieve individual and collective goals . Some people prefer to speak French , some English ; a few people are pianists , but there are many more who like to listen ...
... deal with differences in order to make the best of them so that we can achieve individual and collective goals . Some people prefer to speak French , some English ; a few people are pianists , but there are many more who like to listen ...
Page 23
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Page 35
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Contents
1 | |
The Social Contract | 17 |
Rationality | 32 |
Partialled and Nonpartialled Roles | 46 |
The Civility of Ordinary Life | 53 |
Embeddedness of Social Structures | 60 |
10 | 62 |
Culture and Group Membership | 67 |
Worlds of Fashion Lives of Leisure | 145 |
Rank and Disarray | 152 |
Cosmopolitan Culture | 158 |
54 | 161 |
The Micrometrics of Morals and the Macrometrics | 165 |
The Suspension of EthicsThe Role of the State | 176 |
60 | 187 |
Rights Goods and Welfare | 189 |
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activities American American middle class argued Basic Books behavior Blau buyers capital capitalist Chicago Press collective command economy competition complex consequences constraints contemporary context cooperation coordination corporate Coser costs create cultural decline defined distinction Durkheim E. P. Thompson economic actors economic inequalities economists efficiency Émile Durkheim Ernest Gellner ethics example firms Free Press Georg Simmel groups growth Harvard University Harvard University Press important increasing increasingly individual industrial interdependence interests internal labor markets investments involve issues Karl Marx Karl Polanyi leisure managers mapping Marx means ment Micrometrics middle class mobility modern moral norms numbers opportunities organizational organizations Oxford participate person play political postmodern problems production profit rationality recognition Robert role rules self-interest social arrangements social contracts society sociologists Sociology spatial status structures theory tion tradition Trans transactions University of Chicago urban wage whereas workers York