The equitable construction of social institutions

Abstract

My aim was to establish a rationale for co-operative behaviour, based on my own experiences, elaborated and tested through academic research, and then further refined through conversations with a variety of people who might be thought to act in a way that is consistent with the rationale. The methodology explains why this process might be thought appropriate to a doctoral thesis. In the introduction, some of the essential underlying premises of the thesis are presented, together with an outline of the shape of the argument. Briefly, that shape is as follows. A set of ontological, moral, and epistemological commitments are stated. These are then used to derive a methodology, including comparisons with a variety of conventional approaches, and an attempt to assess some of the potential difficulties and disadvantages of the chosen method. The rationale of co-operation that emerged from this process is then presented, and followed by an attempt to explain how the assertions made in the rationale relate to a variety of existing academic discourses. After this, the field work is discussed, both in terms of its progress, and as a report on the sorts of ideas that were offered to me by those with whom I spoke. In conclusion, there is a brief set of reflections on how the research went, and what might be learned from the process.