Simmel on Culture: Selected Writings

This review might sound a bit strange to many readers as it comes from an unlikely field, namely the study of management. This book has been an eye-opener for me. Simmel's insightful thought, expressed in beautifully poetic language, has contributed directly to the development of organisational life-cycle theories, and especially that of I. Adizes. His way of looking at cultural development in terms of content versus form, of structure versus flexibility, of life energy versus constraints, as well as his categorisation of individual characters have proved very fertile when transplanted in the field of management. It is a pity that this debt has not been acknowledged more openly.