(1983). Research Round-Up. Connections, 6 (2) - INSNA

- 4 6 -CONTENTS :Elements of diffusion . A history of diffusion research . Contributions & criticisms of diffusion research. The generation of innovations . The innovation-decision process . Attributes of innovations& their rate of adoption . Innovativeness & adopter categories . Opinion leadership & diffusion networks. The change agent . Innovation in organizations . Consequences of innovations .SIMMEL, Georg (Soc-Berlin) . 1878 (1978) . THE PHILOSOPHY OF MONEY. t r . by Tom Bottomore, David Frisby &Kaethe MengeZberg . Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul . 512 pp . $10 .95 .A discussion of the social, psychological & philosophical aspects of the money economy, full of insightsinto the forms which social relationships take . He analyses money's relationships to exchange,the human personality, the position of women, individual freedom, & many other areas of human existence .He provides an account of the consequences of the modern money economy & the division of labour whichexamines the processes of alienation & reification in work, urban life & elsewhere . (The book is) anexample of his comprehensive analysis of the interrelationshop between the most diverse & seeminglyunconnected social phenomena . (from publisher's blurb) .FRISBY, David . 1981 . SOCIOLOGICAL IMPRESSIONISM : A REASSESSMENT OF GEORG SIMMEL'S SOCIAL THEORY .London : Heinemann . 190 pp . ;16 .00"A book . . . with 4 announced aims : a reconstruction of some central themes of Simmel's sociology byusing the original texts 0 commentaries on them by Simmel's contemporaries ; an explanation of the currentneglect of Simmel's work in the light of its enthusiastic reception by his contemporaries ; acritique of the tradition in which this work is situated ; an interpretation of Simmel's sociologywithin the various milieus in which it developed . . . The 1st aim is Frisby's real theme ." (fromGuy Oakes' AJS review, 3/83 : 1040) .KNORR-CETINA, K. & A . V . CIRCOUREL . 1981 . ADVANCES IN SOCIAL THEORY AND METHODOLOGY : TOWARD ANINTEGRATION OF MICRO- AND MACRO-SOCIOLOGIES. Boston : Routledge & Kegan Paul . 325 pp . $11 .95 ."We are confronted by 2 distinct questions : What should be defined as the acceptable descriptive relationsbetween micro & macro social phenomena, & what may be hypothesized as casually explanatoryrelations between them? . . . Note that, almost by definition, aggregational descriptions regard macrovariables as capable of being disaggregated into micro variables ." (from Walter Wallace's AJS review,3/83 : 1033-1034) .GROSSMANN, Reinhardt . 1983? THE CATEGORICAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD . Bloomington : Indiana Univ Press .$25 .00 .An inquiry into some problems of metaphysics . . an attempt to keep Aristotle's CATEGORIES up to date .It is a contribution to the philosophy of logic & the philosophy of mathematics . (from publisher'sblurb) .SCHOTTER, Andrew . 1981 . THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS . Cambridge : Cambridge Univ Press .117 pp. $29 .50 ."A quiet revolution . . . is taking place in economics--economists have become interested in institutionsother than the competitive market . . . Schotter attempts to show how social institutionsarise out of the strategic behavior of individuals . . . (His math . model in chap 3) argues thatinstitutions arise from the repeated playing of games in which each individual's behavior is determinedby his or her own motives & expectations about how others will act . An institution exists wheneach individual's behavior & each individual's expectations about the behavior of others are stable . . .(In chap 4, he) argues that institutions provide individuals with information about how other individualsare going to act . By having the information which is embedded in an institution, an individual can thencalculate & carry out his optimal strategy, & in doing so help to recreate the institution ." (fromChris Winship's AJS review, 1/83 : 786-88) .