INVISIBLE ELBOW

Compared to standards of efficiency or intention social interaction en tails incessant error followed by error-correction. Most order in soci al structures and processes therefore results not from rational action but from constraints on the correction of errors. Analytically bur no t concretely we can separate those constraints into culture (historica lly accumulated shared understandings and their representations) and p reviously established social relations. Counterfactual accounts, which are crucial to social explanation, acquire their validity from the ac curate mapping and explanation of changes in culture and social relati ons, including their impact on error-correction.