This article explores the concept of convention in the social sciences. It presents the two major neo-Humean philosophical approaches to convention and challenges their intuitive appeal and research implications. The weaknesses of these approaches are examined and a new direction is suggested for the study of convention. The paper goes on to develop a framework for the analysis of conventions, using the notion of 'the exemplar' introduced by Thomas Kuhn. An illustration of this alternative approach is provided using the example of the 'wage relation'. Copyright 2005, Oxford University Press.