SCIENCES DE LA SOCIÉTÉ - N° 73 - fév. 2008
Links and markets
Harrison White and the new economic sociologies
Edited by Franck COCHOY et Michel GROSSETTI

Franck COCHOY, Michel GROSSETTI, About Harrison White : links, markets and the new economic sociologies  [Text in french]
Harrison C. WHITE, Frédéric C. GODART, Victor P. CORONA, Producing in an unsure context. Building identity and social links in markets
Philippe STEINER, The market as Arena and social matching technology
Jakob ARNOLDI, Scott LASH, China White : value, uncertainty and order in the Chinese culture industry
Michel GROSSETTI, Social networks and mediation in the economic sphere
Franck COCHOY, Links at the heart of market exchange
Alexandre MALLARD, Sandrine VILLE-EBER, « Here's my business card ». The analysis of a relational artefact
David MARTIN, Three forms of market tie in a French stock index-based derivative exchange
François VATIN, The economy as an act of management. A criticism of the substantive definition of the economy


NOTES DE LECTURE

 
Harrison C. WHITE, Frédéric C. GODART, Victor P. CORONA, Producing in an unsure context. Building identity and social links in markets

Abstract
Markets constitute the framework within which firms cope with uncertainty and through which they interact with each other. Within a market, discussed here as an interface, transitory ties among suppliers, producers, and consumers result from an historical process of decoupling from and embedding into shifting networks of ties and meanings. In addition to different roles associated with this context, markets are also related to other institutional domains with which they may share meanings and structural features. Contrary to some accounts of organizational behavior, the social and economic logic that underlies the existence of organizations is not derived from rational imperatives, delineated or not, but rather from a search for control and stability in an unsure environment. Firms' strategies mobilize and couple different types of resources to goals posited as desirable, thus characterizing their identity in a market. Through these strategies, firms attempt to induce some sense of order from the perceived chaos that otherwise characterizes an ever-changing environment.

Key words: decoupling, embedding, identity, social links, market, social networks.

 
Philippe STEINER, The market as Arena and social matching technology

Abstract
This paper examines H. White's ideas according to which pure exchange markets (Arena) are matching devices and can be compared to other matching devices. The paper starts with a brief reminder of White's conceptualisation of Arena and explains how this concept fits the economists' conceptualisation of pure markets. Then, the paper considers three example of matching devices: a stock exchange market, and two non market situations with the distribution of post mortem kidneys for transplantation and the exchange of donors between non-compatible pairs of donor-recipients.

Key words: organ donating, markets, economic sociology.

 
Jakob ARNOLDI, Scott LASH, China White : value, uncertainty and order in the Chinese culture industry

Abstract
The article examines some case studies of entrepreneurship in the Chinese cultural industries. Based largely on the theory of Harrison White, the article argues that entrepreneurs in this sector ­ as in any other economic market ­ seek to reduce exposure to uncertainty by a range of means, including valuation orders and other heuristics. Such means are particular, depending on culture and social context. Hence we are dealing with particular Chinese ways of « navigating the sea of uncertainty » ­ which we refer to as Chinese risk cultures. Through examination of the cases, we suggest that the state and local state governments are significant sources of uncertainty for Chinese entrepreneurs.

Key words : uncertainty, risk, China, entrepeneurship, cultural industries.

 
Michel GROSSETTI, Social networks and mediation in the economic sphere

Abstract
The coordination of those involved in economics may be carried out on different bases going from personal relations to more elaborate mediating devices enabling « impersonal » interaction. According to whether they put the accent on the former or the latter, sociologists interested in economic activity lean on different theoretical traditions. In this article, I will briefly recall these traditions and will argue that they may be complementary, especially if a dynamic approach to social phenomena is adopted. Following this, I will use the results of two empirical studies to show this complementarity.

Key words : networks, mediations, innovation, social dynamics.

 
Franck COCHOY, Links at the heart of market exchange

Abstract
How can the economic sociologist trace the links that are part of market exchanges ? A first and well-known option consists, according to New Economic Sociology, of studying the embeddedness of economic relationships in a set of social ties that precede and shape them. A second and less common alternative consists, in a perspective close to Actor-Network-Theory, of studying the building of links from the exchange itself. The paper focuses on this latter perspective. In a way the idea is to reverse the relationship between links and markets; to consider that if links often come first and influence economic exchanges, the latter can also produce new form of social ties. The paper aims to study the genesis of such ties, their characteristics, and the consequences of their development. In order to do so, it first shows how newspapers, advertising and job ads develop in their own way new kind of links with the public but also inside the public. It then explores the relational techniques used by market actors; finally it outlines the hybrid nature (social, economic, material) of the links produced and it stresses its cognitive and political aspects.

Key words: networks, markets, economic sociology, distribution, management, marketing, consumers.

 
Alexandre MALLARD, Sandrine VILLE-EBER, « Here's my business card ». The analysis of a relational artefact

Abstract
This article analyses the images of sportsmen who are « immigrant or stemming from immigration » in the regional press. The data reveal the importance of sport, compared with other domains such as the arts and entertainment or politics, in the presentation of the category under study. The media coverage of sports immigrants is also characterized by a strong process of assimilation to the local area, which tends to dilute the signs of cultural membership. The portraits of sports champions show positive images of immigration, while nourishing a diffuse process of ethnicisation. These exemplary heroes indeed symbolize a very stereotypical model of success.

Key words: sociology, social network, business card, anonymity, filing, address book.

 
David MARTIN, Three forms of market tie in a French stock index-based derivative exchange

Abstract
From the case study of a stock index-based derivative exchange this paper puts forward three forms of market ties along with three lessons that may be drawn from the sociology of Harrison White. The first form is that of the market as a formal relationship paradigm, or « discipline », between market participants. Far from dissolving all solidarity, the market paradoxically links investors all the better since it relies on the maintained possibility of their individual withdrawal. The forward conditional commitment implied by derivatives happens to make them symbols of this first form of market tie. The second form of tie relies on social (and technical) networks as well as the organisational structures involved in market activity. The author stresses that these structures cannot merely be regarded as « non economic », social prerequisites that embed market activity. The third and last form of market tie is focused more on the product/ service at the heart of the transaction and reflects its societal scope, i.e. the ethical and political factors at stake in its production and circulation. Indeed, beyond the example of French stock index-based derivatives, the article shows that the sustainability of any market depends on the coming together of several heterogeneous private and public stakeholders concerned by the nature and the legitimacy of a particular commodity. Thus, the market appears as a commodity-focused collective « identity », according to White's acceptation of the term.

Key words: media coverage, racial distinction, stereotypes, basketball, ideal type.

 
François VATIN, The economy as an act of management. A criticism of the substantive definition of the economy

Abstract
This article aims to criticise Karl Polanyi's substantive definition of the economy as an independent sphere of social relations and to put forward, on the contrary, a definition of the economy as an act of management. In the first part, I support the idea that the present context of renewal of economic sociology is an opportunity to reopen this discussion. In the second part, I return to the old debate between the formal, unlimited definition of the economy and its substantive, limited definition. I show that the substantive definition is not, unlike what its promoters would have, an effective means of defense against economic « imperialism » (i.e. its capacity for limitless extension). On the contrary it leads to a division of tasks within the social sciences which places sociology in a dominated, if not residual, position. In a third part, I attempt to find an alternative way of resolving this debate by developing a view of the economy as an « act of management ». This means perceiving the economy, not as a particular sphere of social activity, but, pragmatically, as a type of action, characterized by calculation, explicit or implicit. It is thus the type of action and not its scope which provides a limit to the economy.

Key words : economic calculation, economy (definition of the ­), management, Karl Polanyi.