This is Part II of a three-part article. The article is predicated on the principle that creativi... more This is Part II of a three-part article. The article is predicated on the principle that creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and sustainability. This manuscript on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; (3) to illustrate sociological systems theory’s (Actor-Systems-Dynamics) conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and mechanisms and their role in creativity and innovative developments in diverse empirical instances. The preceding segment of this article, Part I, in...
Creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and s... more Creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective, to adaptation and sustainability. This first part of a three part article on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a sociological systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; and (3) to illustrate a sociological systems theory’s conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and their role in creativity and innovative development in diverse empirical instances. The article introduces and applies a model stressing the social embeddedness of innovative agents and entrepreneurs, either as individua...
The three-part article of which this one is Part III is predicated on the principle that creativi... more The three-part article of which this one is Part III is predicated on the principle that creativity is a universal activity, essential in an evolutionary perspective to adaptation and sustainability. This work on the sociology of creativity has three purposes: (1) to develop the argument that key factors in creative activity are socially based and developed; hence, sociology can contribute significantly to understanding and explaining human creativity; (2) to present a systems approach which enables us to link in a systematic and coherent way the disparate social factors and mechanisms that are involved in creative activity and to describe and explain creativity; (3) to illustrate a sociological systems theory's (Actor-Systems-Dynamics) conceptualization of multiple interrelated institutional, cultural, and interaction factors and mechanisms-and their role in creativity and innovative developments in diverse empirical cases. Part I of this article introduced and applied a general model of innovation and creative development stressing the sociocultural and political embeddedness of agents, either as individuals or groups, in their creative activities and innovative productions. Part II investigated the "context of innovation and discovery" considering a wide range of applications and illustrations. This 3rd segment, Part III, specifies and analyzes the "context of receptivity and institutionalization" where innovations and creative developments are socially accepted, legitimized, and institutionalized or rejected and suppressed. A number of cases and illustrations are considered. Power considerations are part and parcel of these analyses, for instance the role of the state as well as powerful private interests and social movements in facilitating and/or constraining innovations and creative developments in society. In the perspective presented here, generally speaking, creativity can be consistently and systematically considered to a great extent as social, cultural, institutional and material as much as psychological or biological.
Game theory can be viewed as an important contribution to multi-agent modeling, with widespread a... more Game theory can be viewed as an important contribution to multi-agent modeling, with widespread applications in economics and other social sciences. This paper presents two distinct approaches to extending-sociologizing-classical game theory: firstly, a system/institutional approach-social science game theory (SGT), and secondly, Erving Goffman's interactionist approach (I-game theory). The two approaches are presented and compared; they are also contrasted with the classical theory. The article ends by concluding that due to the social science game theory, sociologists and social scientists are no longer forced into the classical straightjacket with its hyper-rationality, anomic players, and the absence of any social fabric (institutional and cultural formations). Moreover, the new game theory offers a reliable toolbox of social science concepts and methods for describing, analyzing, and explaining highly diverse interaction phenomena. We claim that those two approaches have already proved themselves useful for investigating and modeling a variety of interaction processes including cooperation, conflict, and negotiation.
Game theory in its several variants can be viewed as a major contribution to multi-agent modeling... more Game theory in its several variants can be viewed as a major contribution to multi-agent modeling. One development of classical game theory, Generalized Game Theory (GGT), entails its extension and generalization through the formulation of the mathematical theory of rules and rule complexes and a systematic grounding in contemporary social science. Social theory concepts such as norm, value, belief, role, social relationship, and institution as well as game can be defined in a uniform way in terms of such rules and rule complexes. The paper presents several of the key assumptions, principles, and applications of GGT, among others: (1) GGT provides a cultural/institutional basis for the conceptualization and analysis of games in their social context. Game is reconceptualized as a social form, showing precisely the ways in which the rule complexes of social relationships come into play in shaping and regulating game processes. (2) GGT formulates a general theory of judgment on the bas...
This article provides an overview and analysis of sustainable development from a sociological per... more This article provides an overview and analysis of sustainable development from a sociological perspective. It is divided into three parts. The first presents selected relevant sociological research before there was ever a concept of ‘sustainable development’. The selected focus is on work falling under the rubrics of environmental sociology as well as development sociology. The second part briefly discusses the context and process that led to conceptualizing ‘sustainable development’. The third part considers the response of several sociological theories to sustainable development issues, with the focus on a selection of four major system theories: world systems theory, neo-Marxist ‘treadmill of production’ theory, ecological modernization theory and modern systems theory, all of which have addressed development issues and more recently sustainability questions. The article ends by identifying an ongoing global transformation, the sustainability revolution, which can be compared and...
This article provides an overview and analysis of sustainable development from a sociological per... more This article provides an overview and analysis of sustainable development from a sociological perspective. It is divided into three parts. The first presents selected relevant sociological research before there was ever a concept of ‘sustainable development’. The selected focus is on work falling under the rubrics of environmental sociology as well as development sociology. The second part briefly discusses the context and process that led to conceptualizing ‘sustainable development’. The third part considers the response of several sociological theories to sustainable development issues, with the focus on a selection of four major system theories: world systems theory, neo-Marxist ‘treadmill of production’ theory, ecological modernization theory and modern systems theory, all of which have addressed development issues and more recently sustainability questions. The article ends by identifying an ongoing global transformation, the sustainability revolution, which can be compared and...
This article aims to present some of the initial work of developing a social science grounded gam... more This article aims to present some of the initial work of developing a social science grounded game theory-as a clear alternative to classical game theory. Two distinct independent initiatives in Sociology are presented: One, a systems approach, social systems game theory (SGT), and the other, Erving Goffman's interactionist approach (IGT). These approaches are presented and contrasted with classical theory. They focus on the social rules, norms, roles, role relationships, and institutional arrangements, which structure and regulate human behavior. While strategic judgment and instrumental rationality play an important part in the sociological approaches, they are not a universal or dominant modality of social action determination. Rule following is considered, generally speaking, more characteristic and more general. Sociological approaches, such as those outlined in this article provide a language and conceptual tools to more adequately and effectively than the classical theory describe, model, and analyze the diversity and complexity of human interaction conditions and processes: (1) complex cognitive rule based models of the interaction situation with which actors understand and analyze their situations; (2) value complex(es) with which actors operate, often with multiple values and norms applying in interaction situations; (3) action repertoires (rule complexes) with simple and complex action alternatives-plans, programs, established (sometimes highly elaborated) algorithms, and rituals; (4) a rule complex of action determination modalities for actors to generate and/or select actions in game situations; three action modalities are considered here; each modality consists of one or more procedures or algorithms for action determination: (I) following or implementing a rule or rule complex, norm, role, ritual, or social relation; (II) selecting or choosing among given or institutionalized alternatives according to a rule or principle; and (III) constructing or adopting one or more alternatives according to a value, guideline, or set of criteria. Such determinations are often carried out collectively. The paper identifies and illustrates in a concluding table several of the key differences between classical theory and the sociological approaches on a number of dimensions relating to human agency; social structure, norms, institutions, and cultural forms; patterns of game interaction and outcomes, the conditions of cooperation and conflict, game restructuring and transformation, and empirical relevance. Sociologically based game theory, such as the contributions outlined in this article suggest a language and conceptual tools to more adequately and effectively than the classical theory describe, model, and analyze the diversity, complexity, and dynamics of human interaction conditions and processes and, therefore, promises greater empirical relevance and scientific power. An Appendix provides an elaboration of SGT, concluding that one of SGT's major contributions is the rule based conceptualization of games as socially embedded with agents in social roles and role relationships and subject to cognitive-normative and agential regulation. SGT rules and rule complexes are based on contemporary developments relating to granular computing and Artificial Intelligence in general.
European Union, neo-corporatist, and pluralist governance arrangements: lobbying and policy-making patterns in a comparative perspective
International Journal of Regulation and Governance
Abstract Legislative and policy-making processes within democratic struc-tures are multi-agent, c... more Abstract Legislative and policy-making processes within democratic struc-tures are multi-agent, collective decision processes. Interest repre-sentation, including lobbying, may have a substantial effect not only on policy outcomes, but also on the structure of ...
Legitimacy versus effectiveness: procedural governance integrating expertise and social acceptance of collective decisions
International Journal of Regulation and Governance
Confluências | Revista Interdisciplinar de Sociologia e Direito
This paper argues that sustainable development in thinking and in practices is the beginning of a... more This paper argues that sustainable development in thinking and in practices is the beginning of a revolution, a major societal paradigm shift, which eventually will match the industrial revolution in transforming social, economic, and cultural conditions. The first part of the article discusses several features of this revolution and what it shares with, and how it differs from, the industrial revolution. The second part of the article discusses the role that social sciences in general and sociology in particular can and should play in relation to the revolution of sustainable development, among other things, monitoring and data collection, analyzing, explaining, identifying and providing assessments of social impacts and related developments, but also of an ethically engaged research in sustainability problem-solving as well as policy analyses.
In this paper, we introduce a theoretical perspective based on the concept of relational control,... more In this paper, we introduce a theoretical perspective based on the concept of relational control, the exercise of control over social relationships. The paper focuses on three of the principal ways human agents structure cooperation and conflict among persons and groups: through control of interaction and organizational opportunities, control of differential payoffs or outcomes of interaction, and control over cultural and ideological orientations of actors in relation to one another. We consider divide-and-rule strategies used to structure noncooperative or conflictive social relationships. The role of the state in regulating management/labor relationships in industrialized or industrializing societies is examined to illustrate the structuring of more cooperative relationships. Parallels to the analysis of international relations are suggested.
This article draws on earlier work in social system theorizing and analysis-in particular, the th... more This article draws on earlier work in social system theorizing and analysis-in particular, the theory of social rule systems. On the basis of this foundational work, its aim is to systematically link theories of social groups and organizations, on the one hand, and social science game and interaction theory, on the other hand. Rule system theory has contributed to significant features of group theory and social science game theory. It is a cultural-institutional approach to conceptualizing group systems and games. We explore how groups and their particular games can be effectively described, analyzed, and compared-and their similarities and differences identified on a systematic basis. For illustrative purposes, we present a selection of several ideal types of groups: a military unit, a terrorist group, a recreational or social group, a research group, and a business entity, each of whom has a distinct rule configuration making for particular "rules of the game" and game patterns of interaction and outcome.
This article aims at contributing to governance conceptualization and its application to case stu... more This article aims at contributing to governance conceptualization and its application to case study analyses. Two of the challenges which the theoretical and empirical work in the article addresses concern the facilitation of comparability of diverse governance cases and a specification of several key mechanisms of governance formation and reform. A proposed model of the architecture of governance systems-their major components and inter-linkages-contributes, as argued and illustrated here, to greater comparability among cases and with the possibility of improved accumulation of knowledge about governance systems. These tools are applied to empirical cases of governance structure and their functioning and reformation. Baltic fisheries, a complex, multi-level case of commons governance, is considered in some detail in order to illustrate and elaborate the key factors of power, knowledge, and conflict in the functioning and transformation of governance systems. In addition to the Baltic fisheries case, we consider briefly for comparative purposes chemicals and gender relations as additional areas of EU governance. The paper is divided into four sections. Section I introduces the basic conceptualization and tools of analysis. Section II presents the case of Baltic fisheries. Section III elaborates the key concepts and tools presented in Section I, in particular considering additional cases of the functioning of governance systems. Section IV is a brief conclusion.
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Papers by Tom Burns