Subject: BHA: Re: RE: Institutions as Mechanisms?
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 10:53:04 -0500


Following Bhaskar in the second chapter of Possibility of Naturalism (or the
equivalent chapter (ch.5) in Reclaiming Reality) the generative mechanisms
of social life would be social relations, wouldn't they?  This would be true
of international social life as much as any other.  So any analysis of
institutions would have to be built up as a phenomenal consequence of such
underlying generative structures.  Institutions can still be causally
efficacious, certainly, but that potency must be located within a generative
context.  So, for example, the WTO would have to be situated within the
context of underlying structures of oppressed/oppressor nations, no?

Howard


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Moodey, Richard W" <MOODEY001-AT-gannon.edu>
To: <bhaskar-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:52 AM
Subject: BHA: RE: Institutions as Mechanisms?


> Hi Ismail,
>
> It seems to me that because "institution" and "mechanism" are very general
concepts, statements that relate them are bound to be ambiguous.
"Institution" is sometimes a synonym for "organization," in which case it
can have real people as "members."  But it can also mean an established set
of practices, ways of doing things, in which case we think of an institution
as consisting of such things as rules, roles, patterns or positions, but not
of real people.   When you think of the WTO as a mechanism for managing the
global econony, do you imagine the WTO as a concrete organization, with real
men and women as members (serving, perhaps, as agents of different
countries), or do you have a more abstract notion of an institution as an
established way of doing something?
>
> What Carrol suggested in his reply is relevant, here.  Is "managing the
global economy" something that the WTO routinely does, or is it something
that some people hope it might do?  This gets to the difference between
attempted control and the capacity for successful control -- power.   Be
careful not to confuse the acts of attempted control on the part of some
actors with the power to exercise successful control.
>
> Best regards.
>
> Dick
>
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Ismail Lagardien [mailto:ilagardien-AT-yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tue 1/13/2004 8:36 PM
> To: bhaskar-AT-lists.village.Virginia.EDU
> Cc:
> Subject: BHA: Institutions as Mechanisms?
>
>
>
> (resent under different subject)
>
> Dick
>
> thanks for that... i am still working on these issues. as for mechanisms,
i am considering the WTO as a "mechanism" for managing the global economy
(See Hirst and Thompson 2000 p 191)...
>
> yeah, i sent that message off too quickly... while I am looking at the
social and historical forces that shaped the institutions of global
governance, i am considering THEM as mechanisms.
>
> indeed part of my critique of neo-classical economics is the reification
tendency. to repeat, no conclusions or firm decisions, yet - just having fun
with this under-labourer.
>
> ismail
>
>
>
> There May be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there
never must be a time when we fail to protest." Elie Wiesel (1928- ) Writer,
Nobel Laureate
>
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