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Person-In-Community: Whiteheadian Insights into Community and Institution

Claremont School of Theology and Claremont Graduate University, USA , cobbj{at}cgu.edu

The philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead differs from most of those that have been influential in the West in its emphasis on process and on internal relations instead of substances and their external relations. For human beings this supports a model of person-in-community instead of the widely influential and highly individualistic and substantialist model of Homo economicus. Communities are societies that are held together by internal relations. The importance of community is widely recognized in organizational studies, but most business decisions are informed chiefly by the substantialist thinking expressed in Homo economicus. To endure and prosper, communities need institutional structures, but these should serve community.

Key Words: change • community • decision • external relation • Homo economicus • individual • institution • internal relation • motion • organization • perception • prehension • process • substance

Organization Studies, Vol. 28, No. 4, 567-588 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840607075268


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