http://www.maths.qmul.ac.uk/%7Elatora/report_06.pdf

Complex networks: Structure and dynamics

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.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/4134367.pdf

Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept

Sensemaking involves turning circumstances into a situation that is comprehended explicitly in words and that serves as a springboard into action. In this paper we take the position that the concept of sensemaking fills important gaps in organizational theory. The seemingly transient nature of sensemaking belies its central role in the determination of human behavior, whether people are acting in formal organizations or elsewhere. Sensemaking is central because it is the primary site where meanings materialize that inform and constrain identity and action. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the concept of sensemaking. We do so by pinpointing central features of sensemaking, some of which have been explicated but neglected, some of which have been assumed but not made explicit, some of which have changed in significance over time, and some of which have been missing all along or have gone awry. We sense joint enthusiasm to restate sensemaking in ways that make it more future oriented, more action oriented, more macro, more closely tied to organizing, meshed more boldly with identity, more visible, more behaviorally defined, less sedentary and backward looking, more infused with emotion and with issues of sensegiving and persuasion. These key enhancements provide a foundation upon which to build future studies that can strengthen the sensemaking perspective.

/pdf/organizing-and-the-process-of-sensemaking-4qk2e6f9y9.pdf

Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking

L'A. etudie le lien entre capital social et developpement economique. Il analyse la notion de capital social et souligne que cette notion caracterise un reseau de relations sociales jouissant d'une certaine autonomie et d'un relatif enracinement dans la vie sociale. Il examine la place du capital social dans le cadre des politiques de developpement economique et met en lumiere un certain nombre de contraintes et de possibilites inherentes aux dilemmes propres aux strategies de developpement «bas-haut» et «haut-bas». Il envisage de facon critique les theories et les politiques concues en matiere de developpement

Social capital and economic development: Toward a theoretical synthesis and policy framework

Modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes. But others, from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and autonomous influence on society. We test the thesis that economic development is linked with systematic changes in basic values. Using data from the three waves of the World Values Surveys, which include 65 societies and 75 percent of the world's population, we find evidence of both massive cultural change and the persistence of distinctive cultural traditions. Economic development is associated with shifts away from absolute norms and values toward values that are increasingly rational, tolerant, trusting, and participatory. Cultural change, however, is path dependent. The broad cultural heritage of a society - Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Confucian, or Communist - leaves an imprint on values that endures despite modernization. Moreover, the differences between the values held by members of different religions within given societies are much smaller than are cross-national differences. Once established, such cross-cultural differences become part of a national culture transmitted by educational institutions and mass media. We conclude with some proposed revisions of modernization theory

Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values.

During recent years social scientists have come to reaffirm that understanding almost any facet of social life requires a simultaneous understanding of how economic institutions work and how they are influenced by values and norms. Sociology, and especially economic sociology, is well equipped to be of assistance in this endeavor. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg bring together leading sociologists, economists, and political scientists in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, the first comprehensive view of this vital and growing field. "This excellent volume is a compilation of some of the best writing in this field over the past decade, including basic works like Oliver Williamson's transaction cost theory of the firm, and [is] a helpful comparison of economic sociology to mainstream economics." —Francis Fukuyama, Foreign Affairs "This is the first comprehensive theoretical and empirical account of the burgeoning field of economic sociology. The scholarship is consistently strong. . .. The book will be greeted warmly and read by serious scholars throughout the social sciences." —Robert K. Merton "This is a bold, ambitious, almost daunting project. ... It will surely become the standard reference book for the field—the sort of text every scholar will have to know-, consult, and cite." —Viviana Zelizer

Handbook of Economic Sociology

During recent years social scientists have come to reaffirm that understanding almost any facet of social life requires a simultaneous understanding of how economic institutions work and how they are influenced by values and norms. Sociology, and especially economic sociology, is well equipped to be of assistance in this endeavor. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg bring together leading sociologists, economists, and political scientists in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, the first comprehensive view of this vital and growing field.During recent years social scientists have come to reaffirm that understanding almost any facet of social life requires a simultaneous understanding of how economic institutions work and how they are influenced by values and norms. Sociology, and especially economic sociology, is well equipped to be of assistance in this endeavor. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg bring together leading sociologists, economists, and political scientists in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, the first comprehensive view of this vital and growing field.

The Handbook of economic sociology

Acknowledgements List of contributors 1. Social mechanisms: an introductory essay Peter Hedstrom and Richard Swedberg 2. Social mechanisms and social dynamics Thomas C. Schelling 3. A plea for mechanisms Jon Elster 4. Real virtuality Gudmund Hernes 5. Concatenations of mechanisms Diego Gambetta 6. Do economists use social mechanisms to explain? Tyler Cowen 7. Social mechanisms of dissonance reduction Timur Kuran 8. Social mechanisms without black boxes Raymond Boudon 9. Is sociological theory too grand for social mechanisms? Axel van den Berg 10. Theoretical mechanisms and the empirical study of social processes Aage B. Sorensen 11. Monopolistic competition as a mechanism: corporations, universities, and nation-states in competitive fields Arthur L. Stinchcombe 12. Rational imitation Peter Hedstrom Indexes.

Social mechanisms : an analytical approach to social theory

Introduction Foundations of Economic Sociology * The Economy as an Instituted Process Karl Polanyi * Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness Mark Granovetter * Max Webers Vision of Economic Sociology Richard Swedberg * Forms of Capital Pierre Bourdieu * Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action Alejandro Portes and Julia Sensenbrenner The Sociology of Markets * The Bazaar Economy Clifford Geertz * Human Values and the Market: The Case of Life Insurance and Death in 19th Century America Viviana Zelizer * Economic and Sociological Approaches to Gender Inequality in Pay William Bridges and Robert Nelson * Non-Contractural relations in Business Stewart Macaulay * Social Structure and Competition: The Paradox of Embeddedness Brian Uzzi The Sociology of Firms and Markets * Group Dynamics and Intergroup Relations George Strauss * Men Who Manage Melville Dalton * Bureaucratic and Craft Administration of Production Arthur Stinchcombe * Processing Fads and Fashions Paul Hirsch * Functional and Historical Logics in Explaining the Rise of the American Industrial Corporation William Roy * Coase Revisited: Business Groups in the Modern Economy Mark Granovetter * Inside-Out: Regional Networks and Industrial Adaptation in Silicon Valley and Route 128 AnnaLee Saxenian Comparative and Historical Economic Sociology * Webers Last Theory of Capitalism Randall Collins * Why the Economy Reflects the Polity: Early Rail Policy in Britain, France, and the United States Frank Dobbin * Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism Ronald Dore * Market, Culture and Authority: A Comparative Analysis of Management and Organization in the Far East Gary Hamilton and Nicole Biggart * Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism David Stark About the Book and the Editors

The Sociology of Economic Life

Introduction The main message of this book is that the advancement of social theory calls for an analytical approach that systematically seeks to explicate the social mechanisms that generate and explain observed associations between events. It might appear obvious that every social theory, worthy of its name, should be explanatory. But upon closer examination, it turns out that what often goes under the rubric of social theory, should more properly be viewed as conceptual or sensitizing schemes, and not as explanatory theory proper.I Much of modern social theory has a tendency – just like the Parsonianism of yesterday – to label, relabel, and to describe rather than to explain. In the case of sociological theory, our main concern in this essay, a sustained focus on explanatory social mechanisms would allow sociological theory to reconnect with what we consider to be its most promising and productive era – namely, middle-range sociology of the kind that Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld tried to develop at Columbia University after World War II. The mechanisms-based approach to social theory should not be confused with a purely descriptive approach that seeks to account for the unique chain of events that lead from one situation or event to another. All proper explanations explain the particular by the general, and as will be demonstrated later, there are general types of mechanisms, found in a range of different social settings, that operate according to the same logical principles.

Richard Swedberg

Papers

Handbook of Economic Sociology

The Handbook of economic sociology

Social mechanisms : an analytical approach to social theory

The Sociology of Economic Life

Social Mechanisms: Social mechanisms: An introductory essay