Reflections on the particular and the universal: unity and diversity in social life and social theory

How do the general and the specific, or unity and diversity, relate to social life and political practice? The essay investigates four areas of social theory that may be fruitfully explored in terms of a constitutive tension between universal and local forces: endogenous institutional change, the role of intermediary organizations in the governance of industrial relations, nation-building, and the origin of capitalist diversity.