Abstract

PIRES, Rui Pena. The problem of order. Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas [online]. 2012, n.69, pp.31-45. ISSN 0873-6529.  https://doi.org/10.7458/SPP201269785.

How do you explain the emergence of ordered patterns of relationships and acts perpetrated by autonomous, creative and free individuals? What impacts have on those same individuals these patterns of acts and relationships? These issues are what we designate as the “problem of order”. This article challenges the association between this problem and the ideas of reproduction, consensus and determinism, argues that the predictability of social life is greater than often recognized and that reflexivity of human agents does not preclude logically or empirically the emergence of social regularities. Finally, we define the social order as a factual matter that emerges as the standardization of relational processes of interaction, grouping and systemic interdependence.

Keywords : social order; predictability; reflexivity; social relations.

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