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Drawing on a range of theoretical approaches from across the social sciences, this book contends that society, culture, and economy are emergent from social and environmental transaction and negotiation. With each transaction comes renegotiation, however small, and thus the continuous reconstruction of society in the specious present, with practices, beliefs and traditions becoming part of the accepted canon of a group through continual renegotiation, and deviations from the canon being managed through narrative.
List of contents
List of Tables,
List of Figures,
Preface. Why Do We Need Another Social Theory?
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. An invitation to a social journey
Where Have We Been?
What is the Question?
Where am I Taking You?
Overview of the Book,
Part I: Laying the Foundation,
Chapter 2. Philosophy of Science,
The Validity of Social Science,
Explaining Human Experience,
Critical Realism,
Chapter 3. A Rubric for Evaluating Social Theory,
The Epistemological Continuum, Objectivism, Subjectivism, Critical Realism, Constructionism,
The Ontological Continuum,
The Applicability Continuum, Agency, Interaction, System, Structure,
Plausibility,
Mechanism,
My Assumptions,
Chapter 4. Scientific Method and Theory,
Scientific Paradigms,
Theoretical Methods,
Thought Experiments,
Chapter 5. Other Building Blocks,
Limitations, Initial Definitions, Culture, Adaptation versus Evolution, Ethics and Morality,
Chapter 6. Situating the Theory,
Reflective Human Consciousness, Consciousness as Emergent Process, Awareness and Self-awareness, Consciousness and Temporality, Reflection, Sociality, The Unity of Conscious Experience,
Human Experience, Initial Mediations, Socially Constructed Mediations, The Environment, Situating the Theory,
Part II. Developing a Theory of Social Ontology,
Chapter 7. Complex Adaptive Systems,
Nonadaptive versus Adaptive Systems, Chaos Theory, Dissipative Structures,
Complex Adaptive and Nonadaptive Systems, Complex Adaptive Systems,
Chapter 8. Emergence Theory,
Defining Emergence,
Mead’s Emergence Theory, Social Phenomena as Emergents,
Complexity-Based Emergence Theory,
Chapter 9. Applicable Social Theory,
Mead and Social Interaction, Self and Mind, Past Experience and Contemplation of the Future,
Giddens and Structuration,
Needs and Motivation, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs,
Chapter 10. Dewey and Bentley’s Transactional Approach,
Emirbayer and relational sociology
Chapter 11. Negotiation, Negotiated Order Theory, and Game Theory,
Negotiation,
Game Theory, John Nash, Thomas Schelling, Cooperation v. Non-cooperation, Folk theorem,
Negotiated Order Theory,
Chapter 12. Meaning, Meaning Making, Language, and Symbols,
Definitions,
Peirce, Signs, and Semeiotics,
Mead and the Significant Symbol,
Ricoeur’s Interpretation Theory,
Narrative and Meaning as Social Canon,
Chapter 13. Environmental Considerations,
Ecological Anthropology,
Ecological Psychology,
Chapter 14. A Theory of Social Ontology,
A General Social Theory, Complex Adaptive Systems Repositioned, Adding Social Transaction, Adding Negotiation and Emergence, Meaning and Negotiation, Structuration, Narrative and Folk Psychology,
A Thought Experiment,
Chapter 15. Applying the Theory in the Practical World,
The Theory’s Relationship to Social Systems and Structure,
Explaining Social Power,
Implications for Culture Study,
Ontological Implications in Economic Theory,
Rules and Rule Making, The Golden Rule and Reciprocity, Social Contract Theory, The Relationship to Political Organization,
Ontological Implications in Moral Philosophy, Moral Realism, Moral Relativism Implications for Moral Philosophy
Chapter 16. Conclusions and Further Research
Significance for Leadership and Management,
Further Research,
Closing Thoughts
References
Index
About the author
Thomas B. Whalen is Assistant Professor of Business in the Business and Economics Department at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, USA.
Summary
This book develops and presents a general social theory explaining social, cultural and economic ontology and, as a by-product, the ontology of other social institutions and structures. This theory is called social transaction theory. Using the framework of the complex adaptive systems model, this transdisciplinary social theory proposes that society, culture and economy are emergent from social and environmental transaction and negotiation. Each transaction contains an element of negotiation. With each transaction, there is continual renegotiation, however small or large. Even if the result is no change, renegotiation takes place. Thus, there is a constant emergence of social constructions and a continuous reconstruction of society in the ‘specious present.’ Practices, beliefs, explanations, and traditions become part of the accepted canon of a group through continual social transaction. Deviations from canon and expected outcomes are managed through narrative. Narrative can be either rejected or accepted into the social canon of a group or society.
This social theory applied Bhaskar’s critical realism to refine the several theoretical works that were utilized. These include complex adaptive systems, Mead’s social theory, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Strauss’s negotiated order theory, game theory, Bruner’s narrative and folk psychology, Giddens's structuration theory and Ricoeur’s interpretation theory.
A transdisciplinary account of the emergence of society and culture and the role of narrative, Complexity, Society and Social Transactions will appeal to scholars and practitioners of social theory and sociology.
