Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: The article discusses the pragmatist view of social institutions which underscores that institutions are based on habitual action. That habits can be shared is sometimes thought to be a problematic assumption but I argue that sharing is the default setting in the case of habits as well. These ideas, which were first presented by so-called classical pragmatists, also get support from contemporary research related to the postulation of so-called common ground. I also discuss Thorstein Veblen’s theory of institutions and some of the empirical implications of the insights of pragmatist social theory. Pragmatism has experienced a renaissance or a “recovery” (Margolis 2010) in social theory in recent years. This is no wonder since the so-called classical pragmatists, especially John Dewey and G. H. Mead, outlined a highly original theory of social life. One of their main points was to show how a theory of habitualised action improves our understanding of social structures. This insight has profound implications for the way in which we conceptualise many of the fundamental issues in social theory. Sometimes it is argued that habits are of relevance only for individual psychology but both Dewey and Mead thought that the intersubjective constitution of human agency also guarantees the social nature of many of our habits. The ideas of Dewey and Mead, however, often do not go into specifics. To get an insight into what a pragmatist theory of social structures would look like, I will present some of the arguments made by Thorstein Veblen who, besides being the grandfather of institutional economics, is also a representative of pragmatist social theory.
Source: Työväentutkimus Vuosikirja
Author: Antti Gronow
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2304401557