Supranational Networks: States and Firms - expanded version

Alvin W. Wolfe

Article comments

This document, unpublished at the time, is an expanded version of papers presented at the Sun Belt Social Network Conference, Clearwater Beach, Florida, February, 1987, and at the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, in Chicago, November 20, 1987.  It was later published in Peace and Conflict Studies. 13(1):68-80.

 

Abstract

Deals with the question: Why have so few scholars recognized the supranational system as something that is truly above the level of the state? Argues that my anthropological colleagues are, like others, bound by our own culture, traditions and narratives to such an extent that they are unable to study these pehnomena with the same "objectivity" and "relativism" with which they study the institutions of cultural systems with which they are less familiar. See especially the section on "Difficulties of Thinking Anew" (pp 3-5).