Interpersonal and Economic Resources: Their structure and differential properties offer new insight into problems of modern society.

Abstract

High population density and increased institutional specialization, which are relatively novel features of human society. have provided conditions for a more efficient exchange of universalistic resources, while decreasing the opportunity for exchanging particularistic ones. The parallel with physical environment is striking: in both cases technology has created new problems in the process of solving old ones. Whether it is natural resources or interpersonal resources, physical ecology or social ecology, recognizing and defining the new problem is the first step toward its solution. The importance of particularistic resources in solving problems of modern society has scarcely been recognized. Welfare institutions, for example, often require clients to lose status for the money they receive. This form of exchange deprives the client of a resource which is already scarce for him, thus further reducing his chances of autonomous performance as a resource exchanger in society. By ignoring the significance of particularistic resources for social functioning, we tend to see the solution of social problems exclusively in terms of a better distribution of economic resources. Improvement of education, for instance, is considered almost equivalent to allocating more money for schools. Truly money is one of the neighbors of information in the order, but the other one is status. Evidence to suggest that higher status improves educational achievement has, indeed, been repeatedly reported (…