Logics of Action, Provisioning Domains, and Institutions: Provisioning Institutional Logics

This article proposes a synthetic new concept of logics of action, intending to apply it to the market, the family, and the polity (inclusive of the state and the community) as crucial instances of what may be termed provisioning domains. These are the broadest or most general domains in which economic activities take place. This article defines a logic of action as a set of socially shared rules of thought and behavior (i.e., socially shared mental models and behavioral rules) that involve a domain of action, the metric used, and the objectives or obligations associated with the positions people occupy in this domain. The domain by itself does not suffice to characterize a logic, and it has to be combined with the other two aspects. The article further discusses the relation between logics of action and institutions, arguing that logics of action are institutions with specific characteristics. They are conceived in relation to very broad provisioning domains and, as such, they have a high degree of generality. The market, the family, and the civic logics may be called provisioning institutional logics, but important differences do exist between the proposed concept herein and some treatments of institutional logics.