order

In most abstract terms, order is a state of structural stability of >systems in time which maintains a negative >entropy difference to the environment, and which shows resilience in evolutionary processes.

In EE, we also use the term more specifically as denoting the structural coordination between >institutions, >technology and >power as the primordial structures of economic systems. Order, then, is embedded into the patterns of >meaning that emerge from the >perception of this structural coordination by the >actors. It is therefore related to the formation of personal identity of actors, which is one of the roots of the stability of order in the continuous flow of actions. For example, order is reflected in cognitive-emotional schemes that commit actors to certain institutions, so that their action reproduces the larger pattern of order. Malfunctions of order are therefore reflected in crisis and anomy.

In this use, order is a macro-phenomenon that is related to the micro-phenomenon of >configurations in networks. One important linkage is the concept of >culture. Culture separates territories in networks which defines boundaries between orders. Being embedded in culture, actions reproduce configurations that link up to the structures constituting order.

The description of order has to identify the specific patterns of coordination between institutions, technology and power which gives rise to a >taxonomy of order. For example, in the concept of "fordism " it is assumed that there is a coordination of mass consumption, democracy and the manufacturing system. More specific phenomena of order in economic systems are, for example, the monetary order that embeds the use of >money in a complex framework of institutions, public beliefs and political structures.

Following >bimodal analysis, order is also reflected in the ecological >viability of a system. For example, the economic system of Soviet Russia was not viable in the long run, imposing high costs on the natural environment. In most industrial societies, social change and grassroot movements were indispensible to increase the ecological viability of the modern market economy.

Basic References

Our concept of order is strongly influenced by the classic German concept of "Ordnung". The economist Walter Eucken analyzed the modern industrial system as a challenge to maintaining institutional stability, containing harmful effects of power and cultural integration of society. See the website:
Eucken Institute
American institutionalism
Global marxism

A path-breaking book that may contribute to unify evolutionary and institutional approaches in one conceptual framework is:
Masahiko Aoki, Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis, Cambridge/London: MIT Press, 2001.

Semantic Field
order   structure