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Author

Mustafa Emirbayer

Other affiliations: The New School
Bio: Mustafa Emirbayer is an academic researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The author has contributed to research in topics: Field (Bourdieu) & Relational sociology. The author has an hindex of 19, co-authored 32 publications receiving 9433 citations. Previous affiliations of Mustafa Emirbayer include The New School.

Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualize agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its "iterational" or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a projective capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present, as a practical-evaluative capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment.
Abstract: This article aims (1) to analytically disaggregate agency into its several component elements (though these are interrelated empirically), (2) to demonstrate the ways in which these agentic dimensions interpenetrate with forms of structure, and (3) to point out the implications of such a conception of agency for empirical research. The authors conceptualize agency as a temporally embedded process of social engagement, informed by the past (in its “iterational” or habitual aspect) but also oriented toward the future (as a “projective” capacity to imagine alternative possibilities) and toward the present (as a “practical‐evaluative” capacity to contextualize past habits and future projects within the contingencies of the moment).

4,062 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sociologists today are faced with a fundamental dilemma: whether to conceive of the social world as consisting primarily in substances or processes, in static "things" or in dynamic, unfolding rela...
Abstract: Sociologists today are faced with a fundamental dilemma: whether to conceive of the social world as consisting primarily in substances or processes, in static "things" or in dynamic, unfolding rela...

2,515 citations

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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors outline the theoretical presuppositions of network analysis and distinguish between three different implicit models in the network literature of the interrelations of social structure, culture, and human agency.
Abstract: Network analysis is one of the most promising currents in sociological research, and yet it has never been subjected to a theoretically informed assessment and critique. This article outlines the theoretical presuppositions of network analysis. It also distinguishes between three different (implicit) models in the network literature of the interrelations of social structure, culture, and human agency. It concludes that only a strategy for historical explanation that synthesizes social structural and cultural analysis can adequately explain the formation, reproduction, and transformation of networks themselves. The article sketches the broad contours of such a theoretical synthesis in the conclusion.

1,928 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a more informed and comprehensive account of what a relational and Bourdieu-inspired agenda for organizational research might look like is presented, with the primary advantage of such an approach being the central place accorded therein to the social conditions under which inter- and intraorganizational power relations are produced, reproduced, and contested.
Abstract: Despite some promising steps in the right direction, organizational analysis has yet to exploit fully the theoretical and empirical possibilities inherent in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu. While certain concepts associated with his thought, such as field and capital, are already widely known in the organizational literature, the specific ways in which these terms are being used provide ample evidence that the full significance of his relational mode of thought has yet to be sufficiently apprehended. Moreover, the almost complete inattention to habitus, the third of Bourdieu’s major concepts, without which the concepts of field and capital (at least as he deployed them) make no sense, further attests to the misappropriation of his ideas and to the lack of appreciation of their potential usefulness. It is our aim in this paper, by contrast, to set forth a more informed and comprehensive account of what a relational – and, in particular, a Bourdieu-inspired – agenda for organizational research might look like. Accordingly, we examine the implications of his theoretical framework for interorganizational relations, as well as for organizations themselves analyzed as fields. The primary advantage of such an approach, we argue, is the central place accorded therein to the social conditions under which inter- and intraorganizational power relations are produced, reproduced, and contested.

663 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors show how collective emotions can be incorporated into the study of episodes of political contention and systematically explore the weaknesses in extant models of collective action, showing what has been lost through a neglect or faulty conceptualization of collective emotional configurations.
Abstract: We aim to show how collective emotions can be incorporated into the study of episodes of political contention. In a critical vein, we systematically explore the weaknesses in extant models of collective action, showing what has been lost through a neglect or faulty conceptualization of collective emotional configurations. We structure this discussion in terms of a review of several “pernicious postulates” in the literature, assumptions that have been held, we argue, by classical social-movement theorists and by social-structural and cultural critics alike. In a reconstructive vein, however, we also lay out the foundations of a more satisfactory theoretical framework. We take each succeeding critique of a pernicious postulate as the occasion for more positive theory-building. Drawing upon the work of the classical American pragmatists–especially Peirce, Dewey, and Mead–as well as aspects of Bourdieu's sociology, we construct, step by step, the foundations of a more adequate theorization of social movements and collective action. Accordingly, the negative and positive threads of our discussion are woven closely together: the dismantling of pernicious postulates and the development of a more useful analytical strategy.

187 citations


Cited by
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A growing number of sociologists, political scientists, economists, and organizational theorists have invoked the concept of social capital in the search for answers to a broadening range of questions being confronted in their own fields as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: A growing number of sociologists, political scientists, economists, and organizational theorists have invoked the concept of social capital in the search for answers to a broadening range of questions being confronted in their own fields. Seeking to clarify the concept and help assess its utility for organizational theory, we synthesize the theoretical research undertaken in these various disciplines and develop a common conceptual framework that identifies the sources, benefits, risks, and contingencies of social capital.

8,518 citations

01 Jan 1982
Abstract: Introduction 1. Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle 2. Images of Relationship 3. Concepts of Self and Morality 4. Crisis and Transition 5. Women's Rights and Women's Judgment 6. Visions of Maturity References Index of Study Participants General Index

7,539 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors tried to take the term of embededness out of the framework of the common program assumption and to disclose how the embeddness and network structure influence economic action and found that firms organized as networks had better chances to survive than those who support casual market ties.
Abstract: In this paper I try to take the term of embededness out of the framework of the common program assumption and to disclose how the embededness and network structure influence economic action. Basing on the existed theory and ethnographic analysis of the 23 clothes production companies I worked out the methodological scheme which depicts the details, functions and the sources of embededness. On the basis of this scheme I formulated and tested a list of hypotheses with the help of the data on network interactions of all the companies producing qualitative female clothes in the New-York sewing industry. It was found out that the embededness is the exchange system providing unique opportunities in comparison to the market and that firms organized as networks had better chances to survive than those who support casual market ties. However there is a pick of positive effect of embededness at a particular level after which it starts going down.

4,815 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of enracinement has been used to model the relations sociales modelent l'activite economique of a business as mentioned in this paper, and it has been shown that these relations play an important role in the performance of the business.
Abstract: L'A s'efforce de comprendre comment les structures sociales influent sur la performance economique Il s'interesse plus particulierement a la notion d'« enracinement » Il montre que celle-ci permet de saisir comment les relations sociales modelent l'activite economique Il porte de meme son attention sur les reseaux sociaux qui jouent un role important en cette affaire Il examine en premier lieu le concept d'enracinement structurel Il compare ensuite les performances economiques d'entreprises americaines qui fonctionnent en reseaux avec les resultats d'activite d'entreprises qui n'operent que par le biais du marche Il presente, a ce propos, un certain nombre de donnees collectees aux Etats-Unis, a New York entre 1990 et 1991

4,783 citations

Book
01 Oct 1999
TL;DR: Wendt as discussed by the authors describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.
Abstract: Drawing upon philosophy and social theory, Social Theory of International Politics develops a theory of the international system as a social construction. Alexander Wendt clarifies the central claims of the constructivist approach, presenting a structural and idealist worldview which contrasts with the individualism and materialism which underpins much mainstream international relations theory. He builds a cultural theory of international politics, which takes whether states view each other as enemies, rivals or friends as a fundamental determinant. Wendt characterises these roles as 'cultures of anarchy', described as Hobbesian, Lockean and Kantian respectively. These cultures are shared ideas which help shape state interests and capabilities, and generate tendencies in the international system. The book describes four factors which can drive structural change from one culture to another - interdependence, common fate, homogenization, and self-restraint - and examines the effects of capitalism and democracy in the emergence of a Kantian culture in the West.

4,573 citations