Zineconomie - De samenleving van de overtreffende trap (Economics of Meaning - The society of superlatives), by Meerten ter Borg (2003)

 

 

 

Meaning, according to the author of this Dutch book, has always been a secondary product in the economy and is only now becoming primary. Meaning making is taking place more and more in the market and in the economy, and it is becoming an ever more important function of the economy. One important consequence of these shifts is that organizations have to enter into a dialogue with the customer, since this is the person who will interpret the signs the organization is sending out. Compared to the traditional way of competing by quality improvement, in which companies focus their attention on tangible visible aspects of their products and services and decide on what improved offerings customers can buy, this process of enhancing meaning making is vastly more complex The author defines meaning making as placing things in such a framework that one knows how to cope with them. By treating meaning as a social construct and by connecting this construct to various concepts from other disciplines (connectedness, basic trust, transcendence, ontological security, etc) Ter Borg not only gives the reader a fresh perspective at the concept of meaning making, but he does this in a very accessible way with very meaningful examples.