Is there redemption for conventions?

This article explores the concept of convention in the socialsciences. It presents the two major neo-Humean philosophicalapproaches to convention and challenges their intuitive appealand research implications. The weaknesses of these approachesare examined and a new direction is suggested for the studyof convention. The paper goes on to develop a framework forthe analysis of conventions, using the notion of ‘theexemplar’ introduced by Thomas Kuhn. An illustration ofthis alternative approach is provided using the example of the‘wage relation’.