Jennifer Leavy

Measuring social networks in three Zambian villages

The crucial role played by social context and social networks in exchange behaviour, and the social-embeddedness of resources in rural sub-Saharan Africa are well documented. Social-embeddedness means more than belonging to and participating in groups. This presents a challenge in formalising socially embedded market transactions within standard economics frameworks. Different social networks measures are constructed using data from three Zambian villages and analysed to demonstrate that network properties differ significantly for different people. The way we measure networks matters. Such fine-grained measures will help future work in analysing the role social networks and social-embeddedness play in people’s lives and decision-making.