Institutions, communication and values

Institutions are man-made entities and their workings, the changes they undergo, as well as the way they need to be understood, is fundamentally imbued in language and communication. Through these social interactions, distinctions are created, emphases are placed and connections and belongings emerge. This book analyses the roles of socio-cultural values in the processes of institutional change. It examines the highly symbolic nature of communication and language and considers how it affects relations within the economy, between the market and society and how it contributes to welfare and well-being. This greatly debated topic dates back to the theoretical considerations of social order in which Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith and David Hume were among the most important early contributors. Wilfred Dolfsma provides a theoretical, methodological and empirical study, which argues that communication and language are inseparable from both the economy as well as from a meaningful understanding of institutions and institutional change.