The forms of co-ordination of the economy

pp. 116-134

in: José M. Dominguès, Social creativity, collective subjectivity and contemporary modernity, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

As I have already had occasion to note, the history of the social sciences in general and of sociology in particular has been characterized by a strong polarization between the concepts of the individual and society — or more contemporarily between individual actors and systems or structures. Nove (1991: xii) evades this polarization when he rebuts both Margaret Thatcher's ontological individualism plus the methodological individualists as well as the Leninist and Stalinist sorts of socialism, proposing instead that we think about the role of intermediate (though not theoretically specified) entities. These 'subunits' may be the city of Glasgow, the public transportation system of Munich, Marks and Spencer, St Mary's Hospital and so forth. However, it is necessary to explore this theoretical issue in much greater depth. In particular, it is important to elucidate which notion of collectivity would warrant this sort of empirical discussion.