Configurations of Relationships in Human Societies

Abstract

"The accompanying paper will not be intelligible to the unfamiliar reader. Putting these reflections into written words was stimulated by a long discussion in Bielefeld with Franz-Xavier Kaufmann and Elinor Ostrom about the multiple levels and foci of analysis that pertain to studies of organization in human societies. That discussion of several hours duration came after some two years of joint efforts to address related problems in a research group at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research concerned with guidance, control, and performance evaluation in the public sector. a long agenda of comparable concerns had been the subject of scholarly interests at Indiana University and elsewhere. similar interests had only recently been the subject of an intense and stimulating discussion in a conference at Rotterdam University.

The stimulation of these discussions was reinforced by a commitment to undertake a long-term inquiry about the comparative study of public institutions as a further consideration and extension of efforts undertaken in conjunction with the research group at Bielefeld. That inquiry will be initiated in a year-long seminar in which several of us will participate at Indiana University. . ."