Part II - Compositionist logics

Summary

Starting with this part we turn our attention to the issue of social structure, and spell out the constructionist/compositionist logics operative in the emergence of an ascending order of social structures out of individual actions and ensuing systems of interaction. Given the discontinuities involved and the emergent paradoxical effects, structural phenomena appear beyond the initial realm of actions, interactions, and direct interdependencies.

In Chapter 5 I present the case of methodological individualism, the archetypal version of reductionism in the social sciences and point out its shortcomings. Chapter 6 introduces the constructionist views regarding the emergence of social structures, exemplified in exchange and network models and the more ambitious game-theoretical logic. Part II concludes with Chapter 7's investigation of complex systems of interaction, especially looking at further extensions and elaborations of game-theoretical and other models to higher levels of structures, that is, to complex, entangled systems. Overall, these three chapters present the measure of the possibilities as well as the limits of the constructionist strategy when complexity increases.