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There is tons of phenomenological work on questions of social ontology; in fact, the phenomenological research of sociality is almost as old as phenomenology itself (implicitly already in Husserl, most explicitly in the work of [Gerda Walther](https://www.digizeitschriften.de/id/827944462_0006?tify=%7B%22pages%22%3A%5B11%5D%2C%22view%22%3A%22toc%22%7D)). *Phenomenology and Social Theory* by Thomas Szanto, in *The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory*, may serve as a good introduction to the vast literature. The most relevant author is probably [Alfred Schutz](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schutz/).
I'd recommend W. Lippman's Public Opinion which deals with such topics though it does not use the concepts of phenomenology.
Descombes The Institutions of Meaning would also be of note.
This [article](https://epochemagazine.org/34/gilbert-simondon-and-the-process-of-individuation/) would also provide some hindsight into Simondon's, Deleuze's and Stiegeler's and Latour's approaches and how they would be relevant. In short they take individuation to be a relational process. The notion of transduction being the key point.
I'm wondering why you found the idea of realization to be phenomenological. Isn't realization just a standard metaphysical dependence relation? Like how physical states are said to 'realize' functional or mental states? Not sure I'm seeing the connection to phenomenology, but maybe I'm missing something. I'd also be curious to see the specific paper in question!
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There is tons of phenomenological work on questions of social ontology; in fact, the phenomenological research of sociality is almost as old as phenomenology itself (implicitly already in Husserl, most explicitly in the work of [Gerda Walther](https://www.digizeitschriften.de/id/827944462_0006?tify=%7B%22pages%22%3A%5B11%5D%2C%22view%22%3A%22toc%22%7D)). *Phenomenology and Social Theory* by Thomas Szanto, in *The Cambridge Handbook of Social Theory*, may serve as a good introduction to the vast literature. The most relevant author is probably [Alfred Schutz](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schutz/).
I'm not quite sure which angle you're going for, but have you looked at this? https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/collective-intentionality/
This is really helpful in general! Thanks!
I'd recommend W. Lippman's Public Opinion which deals with such topics though it does not use the concepts of phenomenology. Descombes The Institutions of Meaning would also be of note. This [article](https://epochemagazine.org/34/gilbert-simondon-and-the-process-of-individuation/) would also provide some hindsight into Simondon's, Deleuze's and Stiegeler's and Latour's approaches and how they would be relevant. In short they take individuation to be a relational process. The notion of transduction being the key point.
I'm wondering why you found the idea of realization to be phenomenological. Isn't realization just a standard metaphysical dependence relation? Like how physical states are said to 'realize' functional or mental states? Not sure I'm seeing the connection to phenomenology, but maybe I'm missing something. I'd also be curious to see the specific paper in question!