Publisher Description

This book conducts a survey into the ways in which the word 'network' has been deployed in a wide range of literature. In particular, it offers a commentary on how the idea of networks has been used to illustrate contemporary forms of socio-economic organization (as with the idea of a 'network society' or a 'network state', for instance), broadly conceived to also include the political aspects of networks. The term 'network' has become aubiquitous metaphor to describe too many aspects of contemporary life. In doing so, Thompson argues, the term has lost much of its analytical precision and has no clear conceptual underpinnings. The problemis that something claiming to explain everything ends up by explaining very little. The book brings some intellectual clarity to the discussion of networks by asking whether it is possible to construct a clearly demarcated idea of a network as a separable form of socio-economic coordination and governance mechanism with its own consistent logic. In doing this, the primary contrast is with hierarchies and markets as alternative and already well understood forms ofsocio-economic coordination each with their own distinctive logic.The author identifies two underlying programmatic issues: the question of whether there can be a particular logic to thenetwork form of organization, and whether there are any limits to networks. He makes the argument that if networks are to mean anything then they must not apply to everything, so this raises an obvious limit to their embrace. The questions thus become where and how to draw these limits. These are reviewed in the light of the concrete organizational forms that networks have taken in the contemporary period.

Table of Contents

1: Considering Networks: A Methodological IntroductionPart I: Theoretical and Methodological Issues2: Hierarchies, Markets, and Networks: A Preliminary Comparison3: Social Network Analysis, Transaction Cost Analysis, Actor-Network Theory: Three Approaches to Networks4: Networks and the Issues of 'Excess', the 'Gift', 'Non-Exchange', and 'Trust'Part II: Applications and Empirical Comparisons5: Industrial Organization as Networks6: Political Networks and the Politics of Network Governanceen 7Networks and the International System8: Conclusion

Review

This is a timely and useful stock-take of the burgeoning literature on organizational networks. * Review of Political Economy *

Long Description

This book conducts a survey into the ways in which the word 'network' has been deployed in a wide range of literature. In particular, it offers a commentary on how the idea of networks has been used to illustrate contemporary forms of socio-economic organization (as with the idea of a 'network society' or a 'network state', for instance), broadly conceived to also include the political aspects of networks. The term 'network' has become a
ubiquitous metaphor to describe too many aspects of contemporary life. In doing so, Thompson argues, the term has lost much of its analytical precision and has no clear conceptual underpinnings. The problem is that something claiming to explain everything ends up by explaining very little.
The book brings some intellectual clarity to the discussion of networks by asking whether it is possible to construct a clearly demarcated idea of a network as a separable form of socio-economic coordination and governance mechanism with its own consistent logic. In doing this, the primary contrast is with hierarchies and markets as alternative and already well understood forms of socio-economic coordination each with their own distinctive logic.The
author identifies two underlying programmatic issues: the question of whether there can be a particular logic to the network form of organization, and whether there are any limits to networks. He makes the argument that if networks are to mean anything then they must not apply to everything, so this
raises an obvious limit to their embrace. The questions thus become where and how to draw these limits. These are reviewed in the light of the concrete organizational forms that networks have taken in the contemporary period.

Review Quote

"This is a timely and useful stock-take of the burgeoning literature on organizational networks."--Review of Political Economy

Promotional "Headline"

1. Considering Networks: A Methodological Introduction Part I: Theoretical and Methodological Issues 2. Hierarchies, Markets, and Networks: A Preliminary Comparison 3. Social Network Analysis, Transaction Cost Analysis, Actor-Network Theory: Three Approaches to Networks 4. Networks and the Issues of 'Excess', the 'Gift', 'Non-Exchange', and 'Trust' Part II: Applications and Empirical Comparisons 5. Industrial Organization as Networks 6. Political Networks and the Politics of Network Governance en 7Networks and the International System 8. Conclusion

Feature

'Network' is a fashionable concept across the social sciences
Analyses the nature and operations of networks as distinct from other forms of socio-economic governance and coordination
Questions whether there can be a particular logic to the network form of organization
Wide-ranging interdisciplinary approach

Details