Networks of relationships

In Dependent Rational Animals, Alasdair MacIntyre (1999) takes these facts about human life as the starting point for an exploration of what a flourishing community is. He concludes that to provide the care individuals need, such communities must consist of networks of relationships in which there is unconditional giving and receiving — unconditional in the sense of not being conditional on the qualities and aptitudes of the receiving person, or on what they have contributed in the past, but only on their needs. Such networks foster and are sustained by people who are independent practical reasoners . 

While the hallmark of the autonomous person is self-creation through choicemaking, that of the independent practical reasoner is accountability — for conclusions and their practical consequences. This accountability follows from the fact that the individual evaluates the reasons for such conclusions and is prepared to give an account of them to others to answer for them and their practical consequences. The individual acts she recognizes herself, rather than her circumstances, as the cause of her actions, and therefore can be held responsible for them. Accountability implies there are others to be accountable to in acting as well as in reasoning the individual is always embedded in a network of relationships with others. 

What is of value here — what is generally called freedom — is thus not a matter of unconstrained choice. Rather it is an achieved ability to be who one is within a network of relationships, a network that affords opportunities to, even while it constrains, the individual. Such networks are located in the world of things indeed, as I argued above, they are often formed around such things. Arendt talks of the web of human relationships as being bound to the objective world of things (Arendt, 1958, pi 83). Without this bond, human relationships lack solidity and are liable to wither away. To preserve networks of relationships that foster and sustain people as independent practical reasoners, the world must be a place for such networks. The creation and preservation of such a world in turn needs people who are independent practical reasoners — people who think and act for themselves and who take responsibility for their actions. 

It is evident that the network of relationships between a university and a company, exemplified by Figure 3.3, has enormous benefits to both partners in the context of government support for interaction as discussed above. The alliance provides ready-made partners for collaborative ventures in which the sums of money invested by the company in the university enable other funds to come from the government and, in the European context, intergovernmental funding that makes use of the multinational nature of the industrial partner. 

Despite their reputation for sometimes being a little too objective and detached — let s just say that Mr. Spock was definitely an air sign — they re also supremely social, linking friends, relatives, and random strangers into networks of relationships. 

Despite the increased world consumption, problems remain in ensuring the availability and affordability of medicines, including those which are essential for treating the majority of common diseases prevailing in low and middle-income countries. The reasons for this are complex. They are not only related to hnancial constraints, but also to the attitudes of key actors in the health sector - a sector which comprises a network of relationships between the government, public and private providers in the health and pharmaceutical sectors, an important volume of industrial activity and the consumer. 

Effective day-to-day management of a complex network of relationships begins with planning. Management on both sides of an aUiance must be committed to the communication and flexibility required for the relationship to shape and reshape itself as needs and opportunities arise. Well-designed management structures and processes enhtmce the probability of success for till parties. 

In this way, a tmiversal may have efficacy that is causal in a broad sense. In other words, if a certain state-of-affairs results from selection on the basis of some criterion then that criterion (a universal) is a determinant (a cause in a general sense) of the state of affairs. To the extent that closure of a network of relationships of components is a prerequisite for the stability of entities, that closure is also a necessary determinant of that states of affairs that it engenders. In order for recognizing anisotropic or finious determination, some temporal process must restrict the range of possible future states open to a system, blocking some but not others. If such an equivalent to selection accounts for the existence of a structure, then that structure may properly be termed a determinant—a cause in a sense that is more general than philosophers recognize. ... 

Each emeigent coherence corresponds to the closure of one ormrae networks of relationships— physical processes that have real consequences (Earley 2014, 2008). 

Constructionism assumes that social reality is not separate from an individual s sense of reality since both are intimately interwoven and shaped by each other in everyday interactions (Cunliffe 2008). Constructionist theorists approach leadership not as a phenomenon embodied in individuals but as an organizing process with a foundation in task accomplishment (Fairhurst and Grant 2010). These investigators consider the actual behaviours and interactions of individuals as part of a broader organizational process, where patterned interactions and networks of relationships contribute to define the ultimate outcomes (Uhl-Bien et al. 2012, p. 307). 

Military-Industrial Complex Network of relationships between government and various industries... 

The increasing use of the contract is a fundamental element of the relationships between the different units in the cellular network organization. For Veltz (2000) the contract leads to very diverse relationships, legal forms, styles and constraints . He stresses that hierarchy and contracts are in no way antithetical and takes the example of Japanese supplier chains. In these chains, the ability to mobilize networks of relationships is based on a clearly defined, prescribed hierarchy that forms the basis for the organization (Magaud Sugita 1993). 

Perhaps coincidentally, and perhaps not, an analogous strand of work has emerged within studies of social enterprise which stresses the central sigiuficance of what are called the eco-systems of support available to social enterprises, which obviously includes the different types of financial support but also the networks of relationships, professional associations, accreditation bodies, political support and trades unions (Bloom and Dees 2008). 

The greatest value of Mendeleev s concept of an element is its power to construct relational series. Chemical elements are effectively disembodied abstract entities that are attached to the real world by the network of relationships represented by the periodic system. This abstract-concrete relationship is indicated by the element s position in the periodic table, which in turn forms the basis for a multiplicity of interpretations. 

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