ABSTRACT
Among the different social sciences (including economics), there is a large variety of models which account for human interaction. Three types of core assumptions are more or less explicitly formulated in each of these different approaches to interaction: the first type of hypothesis (H1) has to do with the competence, or the understanding with which social actors are endowed (their optimising rationality in the economic model); the second series of hypotheses (H2) identifies the set of relevant objects which, though they are exterior to the actors, are deeply involved in their interaction (commodities, in the economic model); and the third set of hypotheses (H3) addresses the mode of co-ordination between the actors, i.e. the institutions, conventions, or rules of the game upon which the actors agree (mainly market competition in the mainstream economic model).
