Reciprocity, Altruism and the Civil Society

In praise of heterogeneity

Bibliographic Data

ID7095828
AuthorsLuigino Bruni (0000-0002-2005-5610, corresponding author)
Year2008
Publication date2008-05-13
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueReciprocity, altruism and the civil society (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9780203926666
OpenAlexW1573742356
Open LibraryOL10206099M
ISBN9780203926666
LanguageEN
Citations received19

The main emphasis of this new book from Luigino Bruni is a praise of heterogeneity, arguing that society works when different people are able to cooperate in many different ways. The author engages in a novel approach to reciprocity looking at its different forms in society, from cautious or contractual interactions, to the reciprocity of friendship to unconditional behaviour. Bruni'ss historical-methodological analysis of reciprocity is a way of examining the interface between political economy and the issue of sociality, generally characterized by 'two hundred years of solitude' of the homo economicus. This historical analysis exposes an absence and this book looks at the reasons why among the many forms of reciprocity present in the civil life economics has chosen to deal just with the simplest ones (contracts and repeated self-interested interactions). The second part of the book is an analysis (with repeated and evolutionary games) of the interactions of the three forms of reciprocity faced with a forth strategy; the non-reciprocity

Altruism (biology · Political science · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology · Sociology · Economic Theory and Institutions · Psychology · Social Psychology · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory · Altruism · Altruisme · Civil society · Economic aspects · Economics · Économie politique · Moral and ethical aspects · Reciprocity (commerce)

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