STRUCTURES OF SOCIAL LIFE

by Alan Page Fiske

Alan Page Fiske shares insight on the basic models of social relations in this “important book that will be of value to all psychologists with an interest in organization, culture, economic behavior, and decision making” (Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan).

Structures of Social Life examines the relational models of social relationships, including how they are implicit in earlier social theories, how they have emerged into diverse domains of social action and though, and how they produce diverse and complex social forms.

Aiming to create conversations and debate about social relationships and the models that structure them, Alan Page Fiske provides insight on the four elementary forms of human relations.

Genres: Psychology, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology, Evolution, Social Science

470 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1990

Reviews

[Sergei Moska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just an absolutely wonderful, thought-provoking book, one that would be useful across many disciplines. Fiske has not necessarily turned me into a discipline, but this is incredibly rich. I had my doubts about a third of the way through, but his largely addressed many of them in the remainder of the text.

Must-reading for anyone (like me) who takes rational utility-maximization to be an standard assumption about human motivation. Fiske provides what might be the most cogent challenge to these assumptions that I have ever read.

[Vadim Polikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very important and influential model of how humans interact with one another, but what a slog! This was definitely written for other academics as most of it references other academic works. I read this after reading 3-4 pages about it in Pinker's Better Angels of our Nature and I honestly think I got more out of those few pages than the hours and hours of reading I pulled into this.