The nature of a partnership economy: communicative transactions and social relations of exchange

Mainstream economic theory only deals with the material side of exchange; we will argue in our communication that economics should deal with other dimensions of exchange, especially the social features underlying transactions. We build our development on the basis of the concept of "communicative transactions" that is to say: transactions between actors cognitively interdependent rendering them able to generate common definition of a transactional situation (a shared co-world) and to create new intersubjectively shared meanings and general expectancies in the aim of reducing their mutual uncertainty in the ulterior direction of their activity. Communicative transactions can be mediated and supported by symbolic productions or artefact. These communicative transactions are parallel and co-extensive to the material side of a transaction (transfer of a good or service). Transactions are considered as means to convey sociality and social values through mutual knowledge. Through the social relations of exchange every party learn more of each other's circumstances, interests and needs, and create a more integrated community. Such relations give birth to the creation of a new partnership economy that is fundamentally different from the ruling market economy.