Culture: Core Concept Reaffirmed¹

Abstract

Two central insights guide inquiry in institutional economics. One, not unique to institutionalism, is that the purpose of inquiry is to produce causal explanations and guide efficacious action. The second is that all human behavior and knowledge are cultural. Human behavior, including inquiry, occurs within and simultaneously reconstructs the cultural meanings and standards of behavior. The process is self-reflexive and selfmodifying; circumstances, processes, and understandings must cumulatively readapt. This sets the social sciences somewhat apart from the natural sciences, where study does not transform underlying causal processes studied. Such complications do not threaten the compatibility of the institutionalist insights noted, but they are significant. In this essay, we consider some instances where differences between natural and social processes, and knowledge of them, have not been sufficiently recognized and, consequently, where the two institutionalist insights have not been consistently applied.