Conflitto sociale e incomparabilitŕ dei beni
In: PArtecipazione e COnflitto: PACO = PArticipation and COnflict, Heft 3, S. 123-146
ISSN: 2035-6609
- According to mainstream economics, rational agents choose between alternatives that aree supposed to be ranked and compared. This assumption is strongly criticized by sociologists and anthropologists; it may partly hold true only when the commercial transactions sphere establishes a uniform measure: money. But what happens when a community compares social goods supplied by different institutional spheres? The rigorous equalization of any rate of exchange is replaced by a system of conventional equivalences. This system is temporary, since it changes as collective beliefs evolve; it is conflictual, because the "rates of conversion" between social goods often express relations of power among the groups themselves; and finally it is unstable, because individuals tend to develop private "rates of conversion" that aree different from the collective ones. This system, despite its fragility, is a crucial tool of reproduction of a complex society. This essay discusses and analyzes some aspects of the issue.Keywords: Incomparability, Rational Choice, Money, Conflict, Participation.