Exchange And Power In Social Life
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
At the crossroads of sociology and economics lies one of the twentieth century's most influential works of social theory — Peter M. Blau's Exchange and Power in Social Life presents a bold and systematic framework for understanding how human beings relate to one another through the reciprocal logic of exchange. Blau argues that social life itself is structured by transactions — not merely economic ones, but the everyday giving, receiving, and withholding of favours, approval, information, and compliance — and that from these micro-level interactions emerge the macro-structures of power, authority, and social organisation. Drawing on both classical sociology and modern structural analysis, Blau constructs a theoretical bridge between intimate interpersonal relationships and large-scale institutional forces, illustrating how power imbalances arise naturally when exchange becomes asymmetrical. His prose is precise and rigorous yet animated by a genuine curiosity about the mechanics of human association, making Exchange and Power in Social Life as relevant to political scientists and organisational theorists as it is to sociologists. A foundational text that reshaped the discipline, it leaves the reader asking a deeply unsettling question: if every relationship is, at its core, a transaction, what does that reveal about the nature of human freedom?
Author: Peter M. Blau
Format: Hardback
Genre: Society & culture
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Good
At the crossroads of sociology and economics lies one of the twentieth century's most influential works of social theory — Peter M. Blau's Exchange and Power in Social Life presents a bold and systematic framework for understanding how human beings relate to one another through the reciprocal logic of exchange. Blau argues that social life itself is structured by transactions — not merely economic ones, but the everyday giving, receiving, and withholding of favours, approval, information, and compliance — and that from these micro-level interactions emerge the macro-structures of power, authority, and social organisation. Drawing on both classical sociology and modern structural analysis, Blau constructs a theoretical bridge between intimate interpersonal relationships and large-scale institutional forces, illustrating how power imbalances arise naturally when exchange becomes asymmetrical. His prose is precise and rigorous yet animated by a genuine curiosity about the mechanics of human association, making Exchange and Power in Social Life as relevant to political scientists and organisational theorists as it is to sociologists. A foundational text that reshaped the discipline, it leaves the reader asking a deeply unsettling question: if every relationship is, at its core, a transaction, what does that reveal about the nature of human freedom?