Predecessor-Successor-Transitions in Institutional and Interpersonal Contexts. On the Development of a Theory of Transfer of Personal Objects

In this article I present an outline of a theory of the transitions between a predecessor and a successor in institutional and interpersonal social contexts. Some of these include the change of a head, chairperson, principal, or owner of a family firm, the changeover in a university chair, in spouse- or family-relations, even the exchange of body organs trough transplantation. The core concept of the theory is "transfer of personal objects," which denotes the change in disposal of certain objects that have a relevant meaning for the possessor's identification and identity. In this article, I specify several theoretical dimensions of the concept. Methodologically the approach employed may be regarded as a "formal grounded theory": Through the comparison of different empirical cases and domains and in a hermeneutical manner, a comprehensive social scientific category emerges that may be used to conceptualize the developmental dynamics of interpersonal, social, and organizational structures. The application of the concept pertains especially to the amalgam and interplay of the material and the symbolic, the individual and the social, and the past and the future. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]