Agency and Constitutional Ordering in Networks

Abstract

This paper illustrates how the network structures in which economic exchange is embedded can be the subject of individual or collective actions aimed at altering the conditions of action and power afforded by such structures. A second strand of our study concerns the notion that interorganizational networks are systems of economic as well as social and political exchange. We regard economic exchange as existing within dense fabrics of social relations, rarely able to rid themselves of baggage such as social exchange, kinship and friendship networks, altruism, and gift giving (Easton and Araujo, 1994). Similarly, the boundaries between economic and political exchange are seldom clear-cut. In economic exchange, actors trade resources and property rights, taking for granted the conditions and rules that structure their exchanges. In political exchange, actors trade a variety of resources with the aim of manipulating to their advantage the rules that