Peter Blau Biography

Blau for the exchange paradigm considering the exchange paradigm, one cannot but characterize the views of another American sociologist - P., unlike Homanes, he was no longer interested in psychological, but sociological aspects of exchange, not only in interpersonal relationships, but also in various types of social structures. Exchange and Power in Social Life. Hence - giving categories of benefits, the benefits of important importance, which is associated with the explanation of various aspects of interactions between individuals and social structures.

So, one of the principles of the theoretical approach to Blau to the exchange was the following: the more benefits a person expects to receive from another in the course of his own activities, the greater the likelihood that it will be carried out. However, this principle of exchange may well be extrapolated on interaction between organizations and other social structures. In the relationship between them, the sociologist believes, the exchange is often not direct, but indirect and therefore much more complex and indirect in nature.

The factors of normativeness and control are actively “interfering” into it. This approach makes it possible to make an attempt to translate the interpretation of the exchange from the micro level to the mesomo level the level of firms, organizations, social structures, and institutions. It is therefore clear that the American sociologist was constantly interested in the problems of social structure, social organizations and institutions.

Determining in the most general form social structures as a multidimensional space formed by the differentiation lines, it characterizes them as a series of subsequent levels of an increasingly wider scale.

For example, "when studying the structure of labor collectives, their direct social environment is the conditions in the organization of the organization where they work. When studying the structure of firms, such a direct social environment is the market conditions. The next, lower level consists of a combination of elements of the studied structure. Examples of such constituent elements can be members of the labor collective, ethnic groups of the city, departments and branches of the company" [Blau.

As can be seen, with a specific study of the social structure, the "principle of nesting dolls" is triggered. One of the main tasks of sociology Blau was to combine, integrate the theories of exchange and social structure. Each of them adds its own to an understanding of social interaction. So, the theory of exchange itself is insufficient to explain complex social structures especially at the meso- and macro levels.

At the same time, the concepts of the social structure, deprived of the analytical capabilities of the characteristics of people's behavior in the process of exchange between them of social qualities and properties, values ​​and benefits, are not able to explain many relations and processes in society. In essence, we see Blau with two “pictures” of social analysis. The first is the result of using the theory of exchange for the analysis of microprocesses associated with interpersonal interaction.

The second acts as a “picture” hanging over the first, and indicates the active use of theories of social structure, more widely and structural functionalism for the characterization of the macro -processes of society. In this case, the central problem is the depth and the density of the relationship between these levels of analysis. An attempt to synthesize them in the work of Blau, of course, took place.

However, in our opinion, it can hardly be considered realized to the end. Finishing the consideration of the paradigm of the conflict and exchange, it should be noted that, despite the peak of popularity already passed, theoretical, empirical and applied resource of these theories has not yet been developed. The main thing is that both social conflicts and social exchanges continue to “permeate” both the daily, everyday life of people, and the activities of many social structures of institutions, organizations, etc.

In other words, they characterize different levels and forms of interpersonal and social interaction, thereby acting as both real and ideal types of behavior. And this means that we can well use the paradigms of conflict and exchange and as a model of explanation of certain pictures of social life, social phenomena and processes, and as ways to solve many complex problems that arise in the process of social interaction.