Norms and Values: The Role of Social Norms as Instruments of Value Realisation

The aim of this volume is to increase our understanding of how norms manage or fail to realize individual and collective values. Values are constitutive for the self-conception of individuals and groups. Identifying with fundamental values generates substantial aims and commitments for social communities and their members. In this context social norms play a central role: they are motivational drivers, aligning people’s behaviour with the values it is supposed to serve socially. The editors’ ambition revolves an attempt to develop a unified account of this bridging function of norms. The distinctive feature of the papers lies in the multi-level and multidisciplinary approach. The contributions combined the resources of philosophy, economics, political science, sociology, and law. Key topics on a conceptual level include the relations between morality and convention, social norms, sanctions and laws, and between norms of evaluation and norms of conduct. The evolution, efficacy and alteration of norms are discussed from the empirical perspectives of experimental studies, rational choice approaches and simulation models. Finally, contributions on the interplay between individual and social values in the context of collective choices and societal change complete the volume. The volume comprises papers and comments that were presented and discussed at the conference Norms and Values at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University, from May 8 to 10, 2008.