Social ontology,practical reasonableness,and collective reasons for action

I argue that the ontology of human social institutions and collective intentionality could be anchored in the normative notion of ‘practical reasonableness’ as collective reason for action. This involves the deontic idea of mutuality, accepted rules, and shared attitudes of other‐regardedness. I examine John Searle's three primitive notions of social ontology: collective intentionality, assignment of social functions, and constitutive rules and procedures. I use these notions to provide a plausible basis for understanding how people reason, in order to arrive at practically reasonable decisions and collective agency. Searle argues that social reality, institutions, processes, and facts are grounded in collective intentionality and the acceptance of social rules, procedures, and functions. I argue that collective intentionality and socially accepted rules are anchored in the need for human interdependence that engenders the social rules and norms or attitudes of ‘practical reasonableness’. I analyze the concept of ‘practical reasonableness’ as a representation of human mode of reasoning that involves collective intentionality.     

A sociological formalization of Searle's social ontology

John Searle's theory of social reality is among the most influential accounts in the history of philosophy. His theory also implicates concepts and issues of foundational interest to sociologists, including social structure, institutional differentiation and the relationship between linguistic performativity and institutional reality. Despite this overlap with sociological theory, and despite some sustained attention from sociologists (e.g., Lukes, 2007 ), no formal theoretical model of Searle's work exists within sociology. This paper reviews the core concepts of Searle's theory before concisely describing and then formally modelling their propositional structure. Though the overlap of Searle's approach with classical and contemporary sociological theory is discussed throughout, the paper concludes with a specific argument about his proper assimilation into sociological theory vis‐à‐vis Durkheim, Bourdieu and Giddens.     

Why and how ontology matters: A cartography of neoliberalism(s) and neoliberalization(s)

In this article, I discuss the importance of ontology and its implications, demonstrated in the examples of different approaches to neoliberalism. The lack of careful ontological considerations leads to confusing and often contradictory usages of the term ‘neoliberalism’, obfuscating its usefulness. Instead, I suggest a cartography which consists of integrating two ontological debates - structure-agency and material-ideational - through the interplay between the problematiques of structuration and semiosis, and the operational debate on ideas/interests. In so doing, this cartography can provide readers with various heuristic devices to understand the making of theories, why and how conceptualizations of neoliberalism differ between and within theories and pinpoint the thematic implications of these differences. The translation of this cartography helps to achieve two things, (1) to move beyond the static analyses of neoliberalism and endorse the dynamic understand of neoliberalization processes, (2) to understand why systemic process-based understandings of neoliberalization can create distinctions between analytical understandings of neoliberalism in terms of either the commodification of marketization processes or the marketization of commodification processes.     

Rules, Social Ontology and Collective Identity

Mainstream game theory explains cooperation as the outcome of the interaction of agents who permanently pursue their individual goals. Amartya Sen argues instead that cooperation can only be understood by positing a type of rule-following behaviour that can be (and often is) out of phase with the pursuit of individual goals, due to the existence of a collective identity. However, Sen does not clarify the ontological preconditions for the type of social behaviour he describes. I will argue that Sen's account of collective identity can be best interpreted in the light of John Searle's notion of collective intentionality, while Sen's explanation of rule-following behavior and agency is best understood using the critical realist transformational model of social activity.     

公共权力监督的"软件系统"解析

公共权力监督"软件系统"中有权力特性系统、人性系统和政治文化系统等三个子系统.权力特性既存在于公共权力监督之中,又作为公共权力监督的对立物与公共权力监督彼此消长;人性是塑造权力特性的直接因素,而公共权力监督拥有引导掌权者的人性及其所支配的权力特性的巨大能量;同时,最有能力重塑人性并开拓监督空间的政治矢量当属政治文化的世俗化.     

涂尔干的宗教社会学

涂尔干的宗教研究是他的社会学方法在宗教学领域的运用。他通过分析澳大利亚土著的图腾制度对宗教的起源做了社会学的解释 ,认为宗教是集体表象的反映 ,图腾的本原是外在于氏族成员的宗教力。他对宗教问题的研究反映了他的社会学准则和基本方法。他的宗教研究是他的社会学理论的组成部分。虽然他受到了宗教学内部的许多批评 ,但是对于中国宗教学的发展仍然有着重要的意义     

知识、策略及权力关系再生产对鲁西南某景区开发引起的社会冲突的分析

对中国农村社会冲突的研究以实证研究居多。这些研究多集中在以下几个方面:一是农村社区内的人际关系;二是村庄与乡镇间的冲突;三是干群冲突;四是村庄“两委”(村民委员会和党支委)间的冲突;五是乡规民约与国家法律的冲突。此外,也有少数学者研究农村社会的文化冲突。但上述研究侧重于冲突的发展及冲突的解决,对冲突产生的原因以及冲突过程所隐含的权力关系均不够关注。张静和孙立平等人突破传统的研究视角,从国家与社会关系的角度重新审视了农村的社区冲突。张静(2000,2002)认为,“国家政权建设”在中国没有完成,因此,既没有构成强大的约束…     

Wittgenstein,Durkheim, Garfinkel and Winch: Constitutive Orders of Sensemaking

This paper proposes an approach to the question of meaning and understanding based on the idea of constitutive rules and their relationship to the social objects they are used to create. This approach implicates mutual attention as an essential aspect of the social processes constitutive of social objects and mutual intelligibility. Social objects as such include the meaning, perception and coherence of things, identities and talk, etc. There is a relatively unexplored but important line of argument in sociology that has, from the beginning, explained the coherence and mutual intelligibility of social objects and associations in terms of constitutive practices and social facts. This line of argument begins with Emile Durkheim (1893) and carries through the work of Harold Garfinkel to current studies of work and interaction, human computer interaction and talk. The argument is that we use constitutive practices (Constitutive rules or constitutive background expectancies) to create social objects and make coherent and shared meanings. To act is in this sense for Garfinkel ([1948]2006) to “mean”. Explaining the consistency of social objects and orders in terms of constitutive orders, rules, or practices is an approach that meets the challenges posed to social science and philosophy by Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953 ), Peter Winch (1958 ) and Paul Grice (1989 ).     

中国共产党与权力总量

权力总量与权力结构、制度化水平和政治体系的开放程度有关。只有权力结构处于均衡状态、政治体系内部各权力主体之间制度化程度较高以及政治体系保持开放的状态 ,权力才会保持最大量。中国共产党在社会主义革命和社会主义建设时期 ,都成功地创造了权力运行的良好政治环境 ,这与她合理地处理好影响权力总量的几个要素及其相互关系密不可分 ;同时 ,中国共产党在新形势下自觉地进行政治变革 ,使得权力总量始终保持着增量发展的态势 ,这也是中国共产党保持强大生命力的重要原因。     

The exchange and allocation of decision power

Traditional theories of multi-person choice takes as exogenous data the allocation of decision power, that is, they assume the answer to the question of who-decides-what. This paper applies the standard economic theory of scarce resource allocation to explain observed allocations of decision power using as an illustrative example the allocation of power across committees in the U.S. Congress.     

Building capacity for environmental engagement and leadership: An ecosocial work perspective

Lysack M. Building capacity for environmental engagement and leadership: an ecosocial work perspective In the context of accelerating environmental decline and climate change, this article explores the opportunities for building capacity for leadership within the faith communities to advocate for the protection of the climate and environment. The author discusses the tools for building capacity through faith‐based environmental education to equip members of faith communities to move from being passive consumers to active environmental citizens. The ways in which ecosocial workers, particularly those interested in religion and spirituality, could play a role in facilitating the emergence of leadership capacity within faith communities to care and advocate for the earth are also examined. The article highlights the theoretical resources and practices of community engagement and public education that ecosocial workers could contribute to this project of building a broad ethically centred environmental movement.     

An Experimental Investigation of the Disparity Between WTA and WTP for Lotteries

In this paper we experimentally investigate the disparity between willingness-to-accept (WTA) and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for risky lotteries. The direction of the income effect is reversed by endowing subjects with the highest price of a lottery when asking the WTP question. Our results show that the income effect is too small to be the only source of the disparity. Since the disparity concentrates on a subsample of subjects, parametric and nonparametric tests of the WTA-WTP ratio may lead to contradictory results. The disparity is significantly reduced when background risk is introduced. That is, putting subjects always into a risky position could improve the contingent valuation method, which is often concerned with the assessment of risky situations such as health risks, automobile safety, etc.      

行政权运行机制试析

中西方法治发展虽然具有差异性,但行政权运行机制却很相似———从传统“单向控制机制”转向复合运行机制。中国当前应该选择弱化国家权力、培育市民社会的法治模式;同时,行政权运行应以“控权—平衡论”为理论基础构建法律“控—导”机制。     

略论罗伯特·基欧汉的“权力”思想

"权力"是罗伯特·基欧汉国际政治理论中的重要内容,与现实主义的"权力"理论不同,罗伯特·基欧汉的"权力"思想不是建立在无政府状态的"均势"基础上,而是以相互依赖为分析框架,罗伯特·基欧汉的"权力"思想既包括了"硬权力",也包括了"软权力";既包括了有形的物质力量,也包括无形的非物质力量;基欧汉的"权力"思想,揭示了"权力"的最终目的是国家的经济利益。因此,罗伯特·基欧汉的"权力"思想是对现实主义"权力"理论的重要补充。     

Postulates and paradoxes of relative voting power — A critical re-appraisal

This paper re-evaluates the problem of measuring thea priori relative voting power of a voter in an assembly. We propose several new intuitively compelling postualtes that any reasonable index of voting power ought to satisfy. At the same time we argue that most of the paradoxes of voting power discussed in the literature are paradoxical only in a weak sense, if at all. This leaves three crippling paradoxes — the well-known paradox ofweighted voting, and two new ones presented here: thebloc anddonation paradoxes. We evaluate the four main relative power indices discussed in the literature with respect to these three severe paradoxes. The Shapley-Shubik index is seen to be immune to all three paradoxes, while the Deegan-Packel index is vulnerable to all three. The Banzhaf and the Johnston indices are demonstrably immune to the paradox of weighted voting. However, they are shown to suffer from both the bloc and the donation paradoxes. We argue that this seriously undermines these indices in a hitherto unsuspected way. Several other theoretical issues relating to voting power are discussed.     

Social work,power and performativity

In recent years, there have been a number of epistemological developments in social work. Further, there have been a number of theoretical approaches that have attempted to ground the concept of ‘power’ to understand organizational practice such as Marxist thought. At the same time, the insights of French social theorist Michel Foucault have been captivating to the disciplinary development of social work in illuminating power relations and subject positioning between helping professions and clients. To move beyond this, and in order to theoretically interrogate the relationship between social theory and professional power, this article draws from the neo Foucauldian-Feminist philosopher Judith Butler – especially regarding Butler's (1990, 1993 and 1998) powerful work on ‘performativity’. This article attempts to generate new theoretical insights to understanding contemporary social work through the conceptual tools of Butler.     

The Institutional Construction of Collective Contracts under the Labor Contract Law: Dilemma and Solution

The Labor Contract Law classifies collective contracts as special labor contracts, ignoring the fundamental differences between collective contracts and labor contracts. This has plunged it into jurisprudential obstacles and institutional difficulties. In terms of the main entities, efficacy, dispute settlement mechanisms, etc. collective contracts have their own institutional characteristics. They should be incorporated into the legislative framework for collective labor relations in future legislation, and should link up with trade unions, collective consultation and collective dispute settlement to form a complete system of collective labor law.     

Abstract Aggregations and Proximity Preservation: An Impossibility Result

An impossibility result for completely abstract social aggregation rules is presented. It is shown that non-imposition and a new no-veto property (two properties in the spirit of the Pareto principle and non-dictatorship respectively) are incompatible with an inter-profile consistency condition formulated in terms of proximity preservation.The result in this paper has been presented in the Staff Seminar at the University of Graz and at the 2001 Meeting of the Public Choice Society in San Antonio. We are grateful to all participants, especially Hannu Nurmi and Don Saari, and to an anonymous referee for helpful comments.     

村民自治与国家政权建设

2 0世纪初以来 ,国家政权建设就是我国现代化的一项主要内容。在前半个世纪 ,由于不能消除赢利型经纪体制 ,各种国家政权试图进入乡村社会的努力都避免不了失败的命运。新政权成立以后 ,国家通过人民公社体制将国家政权直接深入到乡村社会之中 ,实现了政治的一体化 ,虽然摧毁了旧的经纪体制 ,但也毁坏了乡村社会传统的“权力的文化网络”。村民自治则是国家政权在乡村社会重建的一种方式 ,通过它国家实现了对乡村社会的有效治理和整合。     

新世纪政府领导理念探析

新世纪政府领导理念有十一种转向 :从本土化领导走向国际化领导 ;从工业化领导走向信息化领导 ;从人治化领导走向法治化领导 ;从国家为中心的“管理”行政领导模式走向兼顾公民利益和公共利益平衡的行政领导模式 ;从权力取向的领导走向服务和影响取向的领导 ;从“公共行政”走向“重塑政府” ;从单一主体走向多元主体 ;从工具理性走向交互理性 ;从传统的目标—过程取向走向结果取向 ;从官僚本位走向顾客导向 ;从效率取向走向质量取向。