Human organizations and social theory : pragmatism, pluralism, and adaptation / Murray J. Leaf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leaf, Murray J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social structure.

Organization.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (266 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the 1930s, George Herbert Mead and other leading social scientists established the modern empirical analysis of social interaction and communication, enabling theories of cognitive development, language acquisition, interaction, government, law and legal processes, and the social construction of the self. However, they could not provide a comparably empirical analysis of human organization. The theory in this book fills in the missing analysis of organizations and specifies more precisely the pragmatic analysis of communication with an adaptation of information theory to ordinary unmediated communications. The study also provides the theoretical basis for understanding the success of pragmatically grounded public policies, from the New Deal through the postwar reconstruction of Europe and Japan to the ongoing development of the European Union, in contrast to the persistent failure of positivistic and Marxist policies and programs.

Contents:

Empirical starting points

Scepticism, pragmatism, and Kant

New tools

Social idea systems

Technical information systems

Organizations

Groups and institutions

Adaptation

Conclusion.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [225]-236) and index.

ISBN:

9786613895387

9781283582933

1283582937

9780252091711

025209171X

OCLC:

811409125