Emily Erikson

Malfeasance and the Foundations for Global Trade: The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833

Drawing on a remarkable data set compiled from ships’ logs, journals, factory correspondence, ledgers, and reports that provide unusually precise information on each of the 4,572 voyages taken by English traders of the East India Company (hereafter EIC), we describe the EIC trade network over time, from 1601 to 1833. From structural images of voyages organized by shipping seasons, the authors map (over time and space) the emergence of dense, fully integrated, global trade networks to reveal globalization long before what is now called “globalization.” The authors show that the integration of the world trade system under the aegis of the EIC was the unintended by‐product of systematic individual malfeasance (private trading) on the part of ship captains seeking profit from internal Eastern trade.

Formalist and Relationalist Theory in Social Network Analysis

Social network research is widely considered atheoretical. In contrast, in this article I argue that network analysis often mixes two distinct theoretical frameworks, creating a logically inconsistent foundation. Relationalism rejects essentialism and a priori categories and insists upon the intersubjectivity of experience and meaning as well as the importance of the content of interactions and their historical setting. Formalism is based on a structuralist interpretation of the theoretical works of Georg Simmel. Simmel laid out a neo-Kantian program of identifying a priori categories of relational types and patterns that operate independently of cultural content or historical setting. Formalism and relationalism are internally consistent theoretical perspectives, but there are tensions between them. To pave the way for stronger middle-range theoretical development, I disaggregate the two approaches and highlight the contradictions that must be addressed or resolved for the construction of any general and inclusive theory.

Central Authority and Order

Strong central authorities are able to effectively manage costly defection, but are unable to adequately address lesser conflicts because of limits to their ability to monitor and enforce. We argue, counterintuitively, that these limitations build cooperation and trust among subordinates: the limitations contribute to the production of order. First, limits to authority leave space for locally informed decentralized enforcement. Second, central authorities act as powerful but incompetent third parties whose threatened interventions increase incentives to cooperate and, therefore, to trust. We outline the mechanisms by which a strong central authority enforces order and test their utility by considering the secondary literature on rates of conflict in strong, weak, and capricious states. We supplement this evidence, based on association, with a close examination of diverse case studies: baseball umpires, commercial contracts, and domestic disputes. By analyzing these case studies, we isolate and describe the mechanisms by which central authorities produce order in varied settings. We find that central authority may be effective, but the majority of this effectiveness derives from an indirect influence on dyadic relations rather than direct intervention. The state interacts with local communities, but each operates according to distinct logics. The particular character of their interaction produces four mechanisms useful in the production of order. We briefly explore implications for the operation of law as well as the production of generalized trust.

Relationalism and Social Networks

Social network analysis is in many ways a perfect method for relational sociology, yet it is not always favored by relationalists. I address some of the theoretical reasons that network analysis may be perceived as problematic by relational sociologists, then suggest a style of network analysis that is consistent with relational sociology. A relational social network analysis should retain an interest in how the context and contents interact with the structure of ties to shape social outcomes of interest. I also suggest that an attention to interactions rather than relations and an emphasis on network dynamics are consistent with relational approaches. Various methods, including multilevel, multiplex, and dynamic network modeling are introduced as innovative means through which a relational sociological agenda may be advanced.

Anarchy, hierarchy and order

How does order emerge from anarchy? While scholars generally agree that international politics is anarchic, there is much dispute about how anarchy orders relationships. This paper challenges prevailing views by attacking the problem of anarchy from behind. We examine how hierarchy creates order and argue that two mechanisms are responsible. The first is the direct actions of a leviathan; the second is an indirect effect, which counterintuitively results from insurmountable handicaps to central authority, that we call the threat of incompetent intervention. We then examine how these two mechanisms affect order as power decentralizes and highlight how bottom–up and top–down processes intersect. Our arguments are tested in difficult cases: highly developed states, where central authority is strongest, and international politics, where central authority is weakest. The arguments have broad implications for all the paradigms, trust in world politics and organizational change.

Networks, Institutions, and Encounters: Information Exchange in Early-Modern Markets

Emerging economies are characterized by the absence of robust legal infrastructures. In these contexts, social networks in the forms of merchant coalitions, kin-groups, and business groups have been shown to have effectively substituted for stable legal institutions by creating systems of reputation and social sanctioning that reduce contract uncertainty and thereby foster trade and commerce. For this reason, repeated interactions and cohesive groups are understood to play a crucial role in early economic development. One-shot market interactions, in contrast, have been linked to the presence of modern legal institutions. We use archival data from an emerging global trade network that developed over the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries to evaluate whether a strong institutional context is necessary for transient, one-shot exchange. We consider patterns of information exchange in the network and find that, contrary expectations there is (1) little evidence of reputation mechanisms, coalition formation, or reciprocity, (2) transient exchange is in evidence, (3) transient exchange predates strong formal governance, and (4) the increasing institutional strength of formal governance is associated with a decrease in transient exchange. We argue that transient exchange in this network of trade was encouraged by a pattern of interaction imposed upon traders by the factory system.

Relationalism EmergentConceptualizing Relational Sociology: Ontological and Theoretical Issues, edited by DepélteauFrançoisPowellChristopher. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 240pp.

There has been talk of relationalism in sociology for decades now. These two volumes, Conceptualizing Relational Sociology and Applying Relational Sociology, make an explicit play to capture the heart and soul of the discipline and send it on a relationalist trajectory. The attempt raises a series of linked questions: how relationalism should be defined, what is a relationalist agenda, and do these volumes advance that agenda? The term relationalism is itself contested, even by the authors included in these two volumes. I have already taken a stand on this issue, so I should be clear that the way I see it, relationalism is a theoretical perspective based in pragmatism that eschews Cartesian dualism, substantialism, and essentialism while embracing emergence, experience, practice, and creativity. It includes some but not all social network analysts, field theorists, actor-network researchers, economic sociologists, a number of comparative-historical researchers, and of course card-carrying relationalists, such as Mustafa Emirbayer and Margaret Somers (Erikson 2013). These volumes are populated with a slightly different set of researchers: social network analysis and field theory are well represented, but so is critical realism; and there is an explicit attempt to draw in feminist theory (Sarah Redshaw’s ‘‘Feminist Preludes to Relational Sociology’’) and Marxism (Kenneth Fish’s ‘‘Relational Sociology and Historical Materialism: Three Conversation Starters’’). John Dewey and Charles Peirce are cited here and there, but the legacy of Norbert Elias dominates the first volume, and Pierre Bourdieu has probably the second strongest presence and appears throughout both. It is clear that the editors, Franc xois Depélteau and Christopher Powell, are interested in drawing in adherents to relationalism. In fact, reading the volume straight through felt at times like being sucked into a vortex: in the beginning you are circling at some distance around the central point, but gradually advance to denser pieces focused more precisely around key issues. Perhaps as part of this strategy, Depélteau and Powell seem hesitant to flesh out too strict a definition of relationalism in the introductions. It is after all a collection of volumes presenting a variety of perspectives on this problem and too strict a definition runs the risk of excluding contributors; however, this leaves us with slightly anemic descriptions of relationalism as based around the importance of relations (Conceputalizing Relational Sociology) and as challenging determinism and essentialism within sociological theory and research (Applying Relational Sociology). Fair enough. Movements need members, and members are diverse—but there are risks to this strategy also. One of these risks is incoherence. It is fair to say that much of the usefulness of theory is based in logical consistency. Theory builds Conceptualizing Relational Sociology: Ontological and Theoretical Issues, edited by Franc xois Depélteau and Christopher Powell. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 240pp.

100.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781137379900.Applying Relational Sociology: Relations, Networks, and Society, edited by DepélteauFrançoisPowellChristopher. Hampshire, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 229pp.

100.00 cloth. ISBN: 9781137379900.

100.00 cloth. ISBN: 97811 37379917.

Abstract This paper uses the case of the English East India Company to consider the impact of colonialization on patterns of trade. The East India Company went through a commercial and a colonial period in Asia and therefore provides a rare case in which fixed national effects are held constant while the degree of colonialism varies. We use this variation to consider the impact of colonial institutions on the degree of concentration in overseas trade. We find that the onset of colonialism is linked to increasing inequality in the distribution of traffic across ports. This finding is significant because of the relationship between overseas trade and the potential for long-term economic development: the development trajectories of the individual ports were likely to have been affected by these different rates of trade. Our findings also highlight how the negotiation between political and commercial goals in early modern trade and imperialism produced different macro-structural outcomes for global trade patterns.

Colonial Institutions and Trade Patterns

Social network analysis has trouble distinguishing between group processes in which several people interact concurrently and sequentially unfolding dyadic interactions. This article suggests that there are substantial differences between these two types of interactions and that the concept of events can help distinguish between the two. Examples drawn from economic sociology and collective action demonstrate the different effects that may result from group events versus aggregated dyadic interactions.