Abstract

Economics investigates issues related to resource allocation and resource accumulation. Sociology investigate the relationship between social order and social change. Philosophy investigates the relationship between language and experience. In the postwar period, these have been considered unrelated issues by the formalist research programs that have been dominant within each discipline. This work highlights the internal problems that have hindered the elaboration of these formalist programs and argues the need for a postformalist, unified social theory that jointly investigates resource allocation and accumulation, social order and change, and language and experience as linked problem areas. A "social practices" ontology is offered as an exemplar of this unified social theory. The argument is that standardization or routinization of social practices is the key to their reproduction, expansion, and diffusion. Two case studies are explored to demonstrate the features and usefulness of this framework: first, production in the context of the global economy, and, second, consumption in the context of contemporary culture. Finally, this account of knowledge production is compared with the literatures on the philosophy, sociology, and economics of science