讨论
在这篇文章中,我已经论述,大多数的行为都紧密地镶嵌在社会网之中,而此一论点可以避免极端的过度社会化或低度社会化观点。虽然我相信所有人类行为皆是如此,但这里我只集中讨论经济行为。原因有两点:①讨论经济行为的学者职业性地把人们的行动社会性孤立化,从而使这类行为成为未获适当阐释的典型例子;②很少例外地,社会学家退出了所有新古典经济学研究的领域。他们似乎隐约地接受了经济学者的观点,“市场过程”并不是社会学家适合的领域,因为社会关系在现代社会中只是一个细碎琐屑的角色,而不占有中心位置(近来有一些例外见解,如Baker, 1983; Burt, 1983; White, 1981)。即使在处理以市场为中心议题的社会过程时,社会学家仍然试图躲避相关的分析。直到最近,举例来说,有相当多的社会学文章以“所得地位取得”(income attainment)研究薪资问题,模糊了决定薪资的劳动力市场过程,代之以研究个人的背景与成就(参考Granovetter在1981年的一个批判)。或者,如斯特恩指出的,讨论谁能控制公司的文章暗示,分析必须建基在政治关系与更广泛的资本主义本质的探讨上。即使大家都同意公司取得资本的方式是决定控制权谁属的主要因素,但大多数的相关研究“自世纪之交以来就不再探讨市场了”(Stearns, 1982: 5-6)。即使在组织理论里,相当多的文献研讨社会结构的复杂性加诸经济决策的限制,却很少有人企图把这些见解带入新古典经济学的厂商理论之中,或进一步对生产及总体的成长、通货膨胀和失业进行全面了解。
为了显示所有的市场过程都适用于社会学分析,而且这种分析可以揭示最重要而非次要的市场特质,我将焦点集中于信任与欺诈的问题上。我也用了威廉姆森“市场或科层”的论点来展示,镶嵌观点如何得到与经济学家不同的理解与预测。威廉姆森的观点本身就是一个“修正主义”的观点,不同于完全忽略制度与交易问题的新古典理论。在这一层上,他仍然比一般经济学论点带有更浓厚的社会学色彩。但是“新制度经济学”的主要观点依旧偏离了社会学、历史学与法学对制度的研究,而代之以和解决经济问题效率取向相关的研究。这个使命与它意涵的功能论阻碍了对社会结构的进一步研究,而我在这里要论述的正是社会结构是了解一个制度会变成这个样子的关键。
理性选择论点,到目前为止,都被窄化而限于研究社会性孤立的个人与经济目标,他们和这里论述的镶嵌观点确实格格不入。很多在我上面讨论过度社会化及低度社会化时所批判的修正主义经济学家、修正理论靠着我所谓的“心理学的修正主义”——企图放弃绝对理性做决定的假设,借以改造经济学理论。这个策略导致在他“X效率”(Leibenstein, 1976)中的“选择性理性”。举例来说,在劳动力市场区隔理论的主张里,在不同市场区隔中的工人有不同的决策原则,理性选择只是上层初级(upper-primary,如专业、经理与技术)劳工的决策方式。
我却认为,相反的,理性行为的假设总是值得怀疑,但也是一个不该轻易放弃的假说。对分析者而言看似非理性的行为,如果把情境限制,尤其是镶嵌问题考虑进去,仍然可能是有意义的。当非专业劳动力市场的社会情境被充分考虑进来时,人们的行为并不是自动自发地反映“文化”对角色扮演的要求,而更像是对当时情境的合理反应(如,Liebow在1966年的讨论)。经理人对稽查的逃避,以及在转移价格上的计较争斗,就极大化公司利润而言都是不理性的;但把焦点放在公司内关系网络里的个人野心、所占地位及政治结盟上时,他们的行为变得容易理解了。
如果我们把研究目标不止放在经济目的上,而更广及社交、认同、地位与权力的目的,这些行为是工具性还是理性的,就更清楚明白了。经济学家很少视这类目的为理性的,部分是因为,如赫希曼(Albert Hirschman, 1977)指出的,有史可循的,经济学家任意将“热情”与“利益”分开,而后者只跟经济动机挂钩。如此看待事情导致经济学家只专长于分析“利益”动机的行为,并假定其他动机发生在完全分开且不理性的领域内;结果是萨缪尔森经常被引用的“许多经济学家会依理性和非理性行为来区分经济学与社会学”(Samuelson, 1947: 90)。长期以来,许多学者认为,社会影响会造成理性行为的偏差,因此抑制了对经济生活的社会学分析,也导致修正主义经济学家修正幼稚的心理学假设以改革经济学。我在这里的主张是,不管经济分析的心理学假设是多么幼稚,但主要的问题还是在于他们忽略了社会结构。
最后我要加述一点,镶嵌观点处理的是直接因果的分析。我并不曾讨论广泛的历史与结构环境会导演出一个什么样的社会结构特征,所以我不以为这个分析可以回答现代社会本质或政治经济变迁来源等等大型的问题。我有意把焦点放在直接因果关系上,因为必须要先了解镶嵌的机制,以及全面变迁可能造成的效果,这类大型问题才能被满意地回答。我以为最重要又最少人探究的机制之一就是,这类变迁如何影响人际关系,而经济生活又深深镶嵌在这类关系之中。如果一如我所认为的,除非这类关系能被充分研究,否则我们就无从建立个体与总体理论间的联系。
在“市场或科层”问题上,人们已使用镶嵌观点来研究总体理论里利益形态的直接原因。垂直整合的程度与小公司为什么利用市场进行运作,并不狭隘的只是企业组织的关心,它们也是先进资本主义制度的所有研究者的共同兴趣。相同的问题也发生在“二元经济”、依赖发展和现代组织精英本质的分析上。然而小公司是否真的为大组织所凌驾于上,我们总是着眼于广泛而全面的总体政治及总体经济的观点,却很少注意直接的社会结构的原因。
二元经济的分析者认为,比方说,在“边陲”会有大量的小公司存在,是因为大公司需要它们来分散市场气候的波动与研发活动的风险;小公司的倒闭将不会影响大公司的收益。我则认为,小公司在市场上能够生存是因为紧密的社会关系网络变成联结它们的商业关系网,从而减低了必须要垂直整合的压力。这并不排除分散风险是表面的有效的解释。但是只有镶嵌观点才能更有效地解释为什么大量小公司并不必然处于卫星或边陲地位(要参考小公司内就业惊人的成长,请见Granovetter, 1984)。这个观点被限制于直接原因:它逻辑地导演出,在不同的领域里市场展现了多样的社会结构,但却不回答为什么。但这些问题却和总体层面的分析相关联,除非我们先注意到社会结构对市场的重要性,否则我们不会注意到这些问题。
“市场或科层”的分析,本身是一个重要议题,在这里只是用来做一个说明范例。我相信镶嵌观点可以有十分广泛的运用,它不仅提供了社会学家研究经济生活的一个切入点,而且也是经济分析十分需要的观点。为了避开经济学的研究领域,社会学家很没有必要地自外于了一个社会生活的重要面向,而且乖离了欧洲传统——尤其是韦伯的传统——把经济行动视为社会行动的一个特殊(如果重要)类别。我希望在这里已经说明,这个韦伯的研究课题和现代结构社会学的观点是一致的,它也能被后者进一步发扬光大。
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