Cambridge Social Ontology: Clarification, Development and Deployment

Abstract

Social ontology—the study of the nature and basic structure of the social realm—is currently enjoying a period of sustained growth and development, both as a field of study in its own right and as a project concerned with under-labouring for a variety of different social scientific disciplines including economics. One of the most active streams in this area emanates from Cambridge and a group of researchers operating at the interface between social ontology and heterodox economics whose work is sometimes identified as Cambridge Social Ontology. The central figure in this project is Tony Lawson, whose work has provided much of the impetus for Cambridge Social Ontology over the last thirty years. This Special Issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics is intended to mark the contribution Lawson has made to the study of social ontology and to the application of its results to economics and the social sciences more widely. It does so by presenting a range of new papers whose authors were invited to engage with the work of Lawson and his colleagues in the Cambridge Social Ontology project. The intention was to encourage new work, whether it be critical or constructive in orientation, and thereby hopefully to advance the themes that Lawson has pursued over the course of his career.