These slides are the conference presentation for a presented paper.

1. Understanding public organisations:
collective intentionality as cooperation
Social ontology – particularly its leading concept, collective intentionality –
provides helpful insights into public organisations.
The paper sets out the some of the limitations of cultural theories and takes as its
example of these the group-grid theory of Douglas and Hood.
It then draws upon Brentano, Husserl and Searle to show the ontological character of
public management. Modern public institutions – such as advisory organisations
and service delivery agencies, including schools and universities – are expressions of
human collective intentionality.
Public institutions are natural structures that emerge from our evolutionary ancestry as
cooperative animals and enduringly display all the features of that ancestry.
The central concept within these institutions, as a phenomenology reveals, is
cooperation.

2. Understanding public organisations
- collective intentionality as cooperation
Ro b e r t S h aw
Th e Op e n P o l y t e c h n i c o f New Z e a l a n d

3. How to e xpl ain ins t i tut ions
Ps y chologi c al theor i e s
Cul tural theor i e s
Gr id-group
Soc ial ontology
Hus s e r l
Sear l e
Today

4. How to explain institutions
Wh a t c a l l s f o r a n e x p l a n a t i o n ?
1 P s y c h o l o g i c a l t h e o r i e s
F o c u s o n t h o s e wi t h i n – r o l e s , p owe r , i n p u t s - o u t p u t s
2 C u l t u r a l t h e o r i e s
F o c u s o n i n s t i t u t i o n s – k i n d s , d y n ami c s ,
r e l a t i o n s h i p s , s t a k e h o l d e r s ,
e v o l u t i o n o f o r g a n i s a t i o n s
3 S o c i a l o n t o l o g y
P h e n ome n o l o g y
C r e a t i o n o f me a n i n g

5. Grid-group theory
A c u l t u r a l t h e o r y
C h r i s t o p h e r H o o d ( O x f o r d )
“Grid/group cultural theory captures much of the variety in current and historical debates about how to organize in government and
public services, because it offers a broad framework for analysis which is capable of incorporating much of what is already known about
organisational variety.
“Application of a cultural-theory framework can illuminate many of the central analytic questions in public management.
E x p l a i n s f a i l u r e s
N e w P u b l i c Ma n a g eme n t ( n e o - l i b e r a l e c o n omi c s )
F o u r w a y s t o u n d e r s t a n d p u b l i c ma n a g eme n t :
H i e r a r c h i c a l
I n d i v i d u a l i s t i c
E g a l i t a r i a n
F a t a l i s t
– its use

6. Grid-group theory
– its foundation
Ruth Benedi c t Pat t e rns of Cul tur e , 1934
Mary Dougl as
Soc ial anthropology
“A start for this will be to construct (yes, I mean construct,
fabricate, think up, invent) two dimensions. ... I use ‘grid’ for a
dimension of individuation, and ‘group’ for a dimension of social
incorporation”(Douglas, 1982, p. 190).

7. Grid-group theory
– its foundation
Peopl e t ake on rol e s or at t i tude s in ac cordanc e wi th the i r
inc l inat ions on the dimens ions of :
Group (be l i e f s about the bonds be twe en peopl e ) &
Gr id (be l i e f s about how peopl e t ake on rol e s in groups ) .

8. 1 . H e g e l
‘Intentionality’
1 8 0 7
“ W a y i n w h i c h k n o w l e d g e a p p e a r s ”
2 . F r a n z B r e n t a n o
1 8 7 4
P s y c h o l o g y f r o m a n E mp i r i c a l S t a n d p o i n t
“Every mental phenomenon is characterised by what the Scholastics of the Middle Ages called the intentional (or mental) in-existence
of an object, and what we might call, though not wholly unambiguously, reference to a content, direction upon an object
(which is not to be understood here as meaning a thing), or immanent objectivity.
“Every mental phenomenon includes something as an object within itself; although they do not all do so in the same way. In
presentation something is presented, in judgment something is affirmed or denied, in love loved, in hate hated, in desire desired, and
so on.
3 . H u s s e r l
T h e o r y o f n t e n t i o n a l i t y
- origins

9. Husserl
I n t e n t i o n a l i t y i s a f e a t u r e o f c o n s c i o u s n e s s : “ d i r e c t e d n e s s o f t h o u g h t ”
T h i n k
F e e l
T o u c h
H a t e
H o p e
K n o w
U n d e r s t a n d
O r g a n i c a p p r o a c h : I t i s “ p r i m o r d i a l o r i g i n a r i n e s s ” w h i c h p r o v i d e s u s
w i t h i n s i g h t s i n t o t h e o n t o l o g i c a l s i t u a t i o n o f t h e a n i m a t e o r g a n i s m .
E g o a n d a l t e r e g o ( w h i c h m a y b e s h a r e d w i t h a n o t h e r h u m a n b e i n g )
T h i s s h a r e d o v e r l a y c o n s t i t u t e s a s a “ m u t u a l t r a n s f e r o f s e n s e ” .
R e c e n t e n q u i r e s t h a t b u i l d o n H u s s e r l :
1 , Me t h o d o f p h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l r e d u c t i o n → S h a w
( l o c a l g o v e r n m e n t , d e m o c r a c y , d e c i s i o n - m a k i n g )
2 . C o n c e p t o f i n t e n t i o n a l i t y → S e a r l e
( c o l l e c t i v e i n t e n t i o n a l i t y , c o o p e r a t i o n , i n s t i t u t i o n s )

10. Phenomenological reduction
My pr o j e c t
The e s s enc e o f l o c a l g o v e rnment
Be wi th
El imina t e c a t e g o r i e s
Tha t whi ch y ou c anno t e l imina t e

11. Social ontology
A l e ad conc ept i s col lect ive intent ional i ty
John Se ar l e
The cons t ruc t ion of soc ial r eal i ty ( 1995)
Making the soc ial wor ld: the s t ruc tur e of
human c ivi l i zat ion (2010)

12. Collective intentionality
S e a r l e ’ s m e t h o d : B a s e d o n e x p e r i e n c e / r e f l e c t i o n
Or g ani c f ounda t i on & c ont inui t y
Uni f i ed a c c ount :
One wo r ld: f a c t s
So c i e t y , ins t i tut i ons , indi v idua l s , l angua g e
I int end / we int end
Co- ope r a t i on

13. Institutional facts / background / capacities
X counts as Y in a Context
Collective prior intentions / intentions in action
Human institutions = structures of constitutive rules (typically not conscious)