ABSTRACT
Georg Simmel develops a useful theoretical approach towards the problem of social order in his explorations of social integration, system integration and individual integration in the fast-paced and rapidly changing parameters of the modern era. The pervasiveness of the money economy and the spread of urban life are for Simmel not only the dominant systemic parts of modern societies but have also transformed the context in which governments must forge societal order. Social forms are the central means through which Simmel explores interaction, and it is clear that they both facilitate social integration yet also over time become ossified and ill-suited to the creation of vibrant ordered relationships. Simmel is best known as a theorist of the money economy and metropolis, and of the social forms that pattern interactions, but he also explores the challenges confronting individuals seeking to develop coherent, ordered, integrated personalities.
