| Acknowledgments I owe many debts to those who have given me various kinds of support when writing this book. It was produced under the terms of an ESRC Research Fellowship and I am extremely grateful for being given three years of uninterrupted research. In the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, I would like to thank all of those who collaborated on our joint venture, 'Challenging Rational Choice Theory'. The seminars, which have been running over a two-year period, provided a fund of ideas and represented collegiality at its best. Particular thanks are owing to Simon Williams for his detailed comments on the two chapters dealing with the emotions, which enabled me to avoid sundry potholes. Without the constant good humour of Frances Jones and Mandy Eaton over my computing deficiencies, the manuscript would never have seen the light of day. My friends in the Centre for Critical Realism have provided continuous support and comment. They are too many to name, but I must thank Andrew Collier, Alan Norrie and Tony Lawson for reading chapters and for our discussions in the Camden Head, Islington, where ideas are grilled mercifully. Roy Bhaskar and Doug Porpora have been constant travelling companions through this field of ideas, and once again Roy supplied ...
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