reconsidering identity economics Human Well-Being and Governance laszlo garai Reconsidering Identity Economics Laszlo Garai Reconsidering Identity Economics Human Well-Being and Governance Laszlo Garai University of Szeged Szeged, Hungary ISBN 978-1-137-52560-4 ISBN 978-1-137-52561-1 DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52561-1 (eBook) Library of Congress Control Number: 2016960009 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made Cover image © Vincent Younis / Getty Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc New York To Magi (who else, right?) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am extremely grateful to my editors at Palgrave Macmillan: Sarah Lawrence, Leila Campoli and Luba Ostashevsky, who have lent their insight, hard work and passion to the writing and rewriting of various chapters of this monograph I evoke with gratitude the memory of Csilla Lovas, who first drew my attention to my own turning toward a dualist thinking that I also employ in this book I am grateful to Dr Margit Köcski, Viktoria Pais, Eszter Garai and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladislav Lektorsky who have listened to me when I have presented my thoughts about activity, social identity and identity economics, and have read rough versions of chapters of this book; their judgement and comments have strengthened and quite often corrected my thinking Thanks to my graduate and postgraduate students at Nice University (France), Szeged University (Hungary), and Moscow State University, who when they have listened to my courses and participated in my seminars have argued with me Finally, I thank my family: Magi, Eszter, Judit, Moira, Maia, Zoli, Botond, Marko and Robin, who have endured my absent presence and given unfailing support during the long time of work on the book vii CONTENTS Identity Economics, Indeed? A Psychological Introduction Part I The Structure of Social Identity and Its Economic Feature 19 The Double-Storied Structure of Social Identity 21 Identity Economics: “An Alternative Economic Psychology” 35 How Outstanding am I? A Measure for Social Comparison within Organizations 41 Part II Social Identity in the Second Modernization 55 Preamble 57 Theses on Human Capital 61 ix x CONTENTS Determining Economic Activity in a Post-Capitalist System 69 Is a Rational Socio-Economic System Possible? 93 Part III 10 12 103 The Bureaucratic State Governed by an Illegal Movement: Soviet-Type Societies and Bolshevik-Type Parties 105 The Paradoxes of the Bolshevik-Type Psycho-social Structure in Economics 123 Part IV 11 Psychology of Bolshevik-Type Systems Half of Capitalism—And Its Other Half 143 Inequalities’ Inequality: The Triple Rule of Economic Psychology 145 What Kind of Capitalism Do We Want? 157 References 165 Index 167 LIST Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 OF TABLES 49 50 51 xi CHAPTER Identity Economics, Indeed? A Psychological Introduction I know that my title might sound strange as the title for the introduction to a book whose subject is identity economics However, this book approaches social identity from the perspective of economic psychology; at the time that it produced its American incarnation, psychology was all about behavioral psychology When I began my inquiry into the topic that later became my version of economic psychology, I was engaged with the same behavioral psychology The same? Not exactly I was in fact engaged with the Russian version of this psychology: activity theory, which had been elaborated by scholars from Lev Vygotsky’s former team: Alexis Leontiev, Petr Galperin, and Alexander Luria The difference between the two theories is that behavioral psychology depends on pointy stimuli, whereas the activity in activity theory involves real 3D objects, moving and developing In American theorizing, the real, moving and developing objects are present in another theory: cognitive psychology, which is not simply different from behaviorism but is directly opposed to it However, Russian activity theory is a theory of object-directed activity and also a theory of an activity-defined object These “two” theories are the same, and together constitute economic psychology: the activity that defines the object is the work producing that object—and the object that directs the activity is the tool mediating that activity For that matter, psychology that is framed by activity theory and that frames economic psychology is more capable than any other type of psychological theory For example, consider © The Author(s) 2017 L Garai, Reconsidering Identity Economics, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-52561-1_1 .. .Reconsidering Identity Economics Laszlo Garai Reconsidering Identity Economics Human Well- Being and Governance Laszlo Garai University of Szeged Szeged,... CONTENTS Identity Economics, Indeed? A Psychological Introduction Part I The Structure of Social Identity and Its Economic Feature 19 The Double-Storied Structure of Social Identity 21 Identity Economics: ... Garai and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladislav Lektorsky who have listened to me when I have presented my thoughts about activity, social identity and identity economics, and have