Social Exchange Background: Theoretical Roots: Classical Anthropology: Malinowski (Kula exchange),...

Social Exchange

Background:Theoretical Roots:

•Classical Anthropology: Malinowski (Kula exchange), Levi-Strauss (Classificatory Kinship studies), Durkheim•Homans, Blau, Emerson, Ekeh

Direct Exchange:•Emerson, Cook, Yamagishi -Power Dependence, Vulnerability•Willer, Markovski, Skvoretz, Lovaglia

- Network Exchange Theory (NET)•Game Theory

- Bienenstock & Bonacich•Central questions about power

Generalized Exchange:•Bearman•Nobuyuki Takahashi•Central question is about solidarity & Social cohesion

Theoretical Background:

Social Exchange: Direct

Peter Blau’s Exchange and Power in Social Life and Homans’ Elementary Forms are central starting points for much of this work

Blau•Most of social life rests on interaction•Interaction is rarely a purely disinterested affair•People seek something from interaction and give something in turn•Blau focused on:

•what distinguished economic from social exchange•the forces propelling reciprocity•the importance of ambiguity in social exchange•Social debt•How power comes from controlling resources



The view of actors is individualistic & rational. With Homans this rested mainly on a Skinner-esque behaviorism and basic rational actor models. Blau dropped most of the behaviorism issues (though different psychological issues were taken up by Emerson & others) in favor of a simplified economic view.

Blau argues that, “An apparent ‘altruism’ pervades social life; people are

anxious to benefit one another and to reciprocate for the benefits they receive. But beneath this seeming selflessness an underlying ‘egoism’ can be discovered; the tendency to help others is frequently motivated by the expectation that doing so will bring social rewards.”



From this, Blau develops a theory of exchange and power. We exchange with others for the things we can’t get ourselves (favors from colleagues, romantic interest from people we are attracted to, skills). Those that control these resources have power, since others are willing to provide something for them.

Social exchange differs from economic exchange in the extent of ambiguity underlying the exchange (how much is a half hour of a colleague's time worth? Or an hour of the attention of someone you are attracted to?), which has multiple implications for the dynamics of social interaction



People have extended (or, in many cases, reacted against) Blau’s propositions in multiple ways. Most versions of network exchange theory starts with Blau’s assertion that power follows from the control of resources.

That unilateral control leads to power in a dyad is one thing, but how does control over exchange differ when we move beyond the dyad to larger exchange structures? This is the branch of ideas that lead to Network Exchange Theory and Power Dependence Theory

The focus is less on the ambiguity or uniquely social aspect of the exchange event, but rather on how any exchange relation is affected by the social structure that restricts exchange partners.


Cook, Emerson, Gilmore and Yamagishi

A relatively early paper in a long sequence of work (see handout). This piece sets up one branch the exchange theory. For a great review of the other dominant branch, see Network Exchange Theory (Willer, 1999)

A very active research community, interested in identifying how the structure of a network can give particular members of the network greater control over resources.

In most cases, the work is experimental and formal, moving very carefully along theoretically defined lines, and testing each step with experiments.


Basic Concepts

“Many of the social networks of interest to social scientists can be analyzed fruitfully as exchange networks, provided that the specific content of the social relations in the network involves the transfer of valued items”

Consists of:1) a set of actors2) a distribution of valued resources among those actors3) for each actor a set of exchange opportunities 4) a set of historically used exchange relations (subset of 4) 5) a set of network connections linking exchange relations into a

single network structure


Basic Concepts

Definition 1: Two exchange relations between actors A-B and A-C are connected to form the minimal network B-A-C to the degree that exchange in one relation is contingent on exchange (or nonexchange) in the other relation.

•The connection is positive if exchange in one relation is contingent on exchange in another relation

•The connection is negative if exchange in one relation is contingent on nonexchange in the other.

Definition 2: A position in a graph or network is a set of one or more points whose residual graphs are isomorphic (I.e. automorphic equivalence)

•Used to simplify the analysis of otherwise more complex networks•Position in the network determines exchange behavior


Basic Concepts


(Used in the experiment)(Used in previous experiments)

Social Exchange: DirectBasic Concepts

In these networks, •Each actor has a resource which the other actors want

•each line represents an opportunity for exchange

•Solid lines represent a more profitable exchange opportunity than dashed lines.

•They expect that the high profit opportunities will be converted into relations

•The emergent networks are negatively connected: any use of one opportunity means that another is forgone

•Actors have no knowledge of the structure beyond their own set of relations

Research Question:Do predictions based on power dependence notions and

those based solely on structural centrality yield the same results in negatively connected networks?

•Compare Betweenness centrality and Closeness Centrality•Hypothesis:

In figure 1c, D > E > F in power

D

E

F

E

F


(note that this results from the weak connection between F, otherwise the graph would be a simple circle)


Power Dependence Theory

Def. 3. In any dyadic exchange relation Ax; By (where A and B are actors and x and y are resources introduced in exchange), the power of A over B (PAB) is the potential of A to obtain favorable outcomes at B’s expense.

Def. 4. The dependence (DAB) of A on B in a dyadic exchange relation is a joint function (1) varying directly with the value of y to A, and (2) varying inversely with the availability of y to A from alternate sources.

Power Dependence hypothesis:PAB = DBA

D

E

F

E

F


Power Dependence Theory

H2: As the exchange process proceeds, E will display more power use than the occupants of position D and F, as seen by (a) an increase over time in the amount of benefits gained and (b) a greater absolute level of exchange benefit by E in the final exchange phase.

H3: Power of E over F will be seen before that of E over D

H4; Position E will exert equal levels of power over the occupants of F and D by the final or stable phase of power use.


Experimental Exchange Process

•Communication only through computer, to restrict opportunities to the form listed in the network

•Subjects negotiate with each other for “profit points” by sending offers and counter offers (the value differed by exchange partner, so that F to F would lead to lower profits for each point traded (for F) than an F to E would, in keeping with the broken / solid line structure of the network.)

•Subjects could not compare their benefits to other’s benefits


Experimental Results

Results confirm Power dependence theory


Simulation Results

0

5

10

15

20

25

1 2 3 4 5 6

DE

DE

Time

Poi

nts

Social Exchange: Generalized

The questions behind generalized exchange differ from those in direct exchange:

•Goods can often be transferred long distances, which can’t occur in the negatively connected exchange networks.

•People do not directly benefit by being a ‘giver’ -- no immediate reciprocity

•Interest in how exchange unites a large society

•Interest in problems of free riding and compliance


History

The Kula Ring.One of the most cited examples of a generalized exchange

process is the Kula Ring.

......

......

NecklacesArmbands


Basic types:

Network Generalized Exchange:

Examples include:Giving blood, reviewing journal articles, carpools


Basic types:Chain Generalized Exchange

Examples:Kula RingSome forms of Kinship


In all generalized exchange systems, those who give are not necessarily those who receive, and thus there is great opportunity for free riding.

Bearman is interested in (a) identifying a generalized exchange system and (b) explaining how it came to be and how it is maintained.


Why Exchange?

We exchange because some of the things we have we can’t use. Economic exchange rests on the conversion of use-value to exchange-value. Social exchange rests on exchanging use-values directly. Something that person A has is useful to B, but not to A, which makes it available for exchange.

In the Groote Eylandt case, the incest taboo makes sisters unavailable for marriage, and thus items of exchange.

Almost all classificatory kinship systems have a known structure, based on who is allowed to marry who. The puzzling point on Groote Eylandt was that the normative rules guiding marriage were self-contradictory, making it impossible to develop a coherent marriage system.



The normative alternatives

Normatively, A male should marry his FZD (Father’s Sister’s Daughter)



EFZD

FFZ

1) Ego in group 1 seeks a wife. Where does he go?

2)E’s Father is in Group 3.

3) E’s Father’s Sister was married into group 4.

4) E’s FZ’s daughter goes to Group 1

5) E should marry his FZD, who is in 1.



E FZD

F FZM

The bilateral cousin marriage system in western genealogy terms

Social Exchange: GeneralizedThe normative alternatives

AB

E

Who Should E marry?E’s F is in 5E’s M is in 7E’s MM is in 4E’s MMB is in 4E’s MMBD is in 6E’s MMBDD is in 1 M

F

MFMM

MMF

MMB

MMBD

MMBDD





E

MMBDF M

MMBF MM

MMBDD

(Second Cousins)



On Groote Eylandt, names for kin could fit in either system. But logically, the two cannot occur at the same time. Ethnographers of Groote Eylandt concluded that the kinship system there was a jumbled mess.

The only thing that all ethnographers agreed on was that people could not marry within their own moiety.

But is it? People seemed to know who to marry, what patter, if any, did their marriages fall under?

To test this, use data on kinship status among the aborigines and block model the movement of wives across the system.


The raw data for the analysis are 5 relationship matrices:

1. MB, M, MBS, MBD2. MMBDS, MMBDD, W, HZ,WB,H3. ZS, ZD, FZD, FZS4. FMB, FM, DD, DS5. MF, MFZ

M = Mother, B = Brother, D = Daughter, S = Son, Z =SisterNote these are classificatory equivalents on Groote E.


Marriage patterns across named section, grouped by Moiety

Log-Linear model shows that, with respect to named section, mixing is random within moiety


After block modeling the kinship relations, Berman calculated the flow of wives across blocks. The result was a near-perfect cycle.


Where does this structure come from? •It can be maintained, once in place, in many ways (Balance, self interest), but that is not sufficient to explain where it came from.

•Bearman argues that chain generalized exchange follows because of the demographic pressure induced by the the great age difference in marriage (18 years) and polygamy.

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Social Exchange Background: Theoretical Roots: Classical Anthropology: Malinowski (Kula exchange),...

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