A critical realist perspective on collective action in economics

ABSTRACT The mainstream of traditional economics assumes that the analyses of the economic relations is the individual, by the economic relationship among themselves (exchange) or by the economic relationship among individuals and things (production factors). Hardly the economical science takes assumptions about collectively organized individuals. In general, when it is done, it assumes that it is an effect of aggregate actions of isolated individuals, which means it lays on the grounds of methodological individualism. In microeconomics, for example, a statement about a group of individuals, a firm or a society, necessarily assumes that their actions are aggregate from the effects of individual optimizations, even if this requires very strict conditions for the individual beliefs and desires. This paper aims to present an alternative analytical framework to that paradigm, simultaneously compromised with a realist analysis and incorporating empirical and contextual elements allusive to human conduct. Positioning our emphasis in the meso-sociological level of analysis, we argue that the analysis of collective action, informed by critical realism, could be an alternative to drive the study of economics.

摘要 传统经济学的主流范式假定，经济关系的分析单元为个体，分析依据涵盖个体间的经济关联（交换行为）以及个体与物质要素间的经济关联（生产要素）。经济学领域极少以集体组织化的个体作为分析前提。通常而言，即便开展此类分析，其也会将集体现象视作孤立个体行动的加总效应，本质上仍立足于方法论个体主义（methodological individualism）的理论根基之上。以微观经济学（microeconomics）为例，但凡涉及个体群体、企业或社会的相关论断，必然会将其行动视为个体最优化行为效应的加总，即便这一推导需为个体信念与偏好设定极为严苛的前提条件。本文旨在提出该研究范式的替代性分析框架，该框架既兼顾实在论分析路径，又纳入贴合人类行为的经验性与情境性要素。我们将分析重心置于中观社会学层面，主张以批判实在论（critical realism）为指引的集体行动分析，可作为推动经济学研究的替代性路径。