Gifting Practices and Interorganizational Relations: Constructing Obligation Networks in the Electronics Sector

Sociologists and economic anthropologists often implicitly associate capitalist societies with the commodity form and preindustrial societies with the gift form. In contrast, this ethnographic study of the sales of electronics components shows that gifting and commodity exchange actually are inextricably intertwined in contemporary markets. Commodity exchange depends on obligation networks created and sustained, in part, by gifting and countergifting. Each juncture of the sales process has an associated type of gifting. Gifts provide the social basis for a moral economy that governs the construction of sales networks.     

Social capital and the added value of social relations

Almost all empirical research reveals that social capital is a factor that enhances public goods, but scholars are divided into two strands of thought. According to the first strand, the enhancement of public goods does not need any network of social relations, while, according to the second, enhancement depends on the existence and good functioning of relational networks, to the point that it consists in the creation of social networks. Which one is right? In order to clarify the issue, one should ask: can a social relation have any added social value? If so, how can we conceive of the added social value of social relations, and how can we measure it? The author claims that the added social value of social relations can be observed in those processes through which social capital and public (relational) goods (re)generate or elide each other. These processes can be analyzed as morphogenetic cycles that work in temporal sequences and are not circular or recursive. By adopting this perspective, we can see and measure the added social value of social relations in primary and secondary networks, leading to the emergence of public goods. The relational approach can give abundant evidence as to how and why different public goods are produced and/or enhanced depending on the different added social value of the social relations that constitute them.     

Social inclusion in terms of hospitality

The aim of this essay is to analyse social inclusion from two distinct points of view. On the one hand, in order to underline the complex nature of the paradigm of social inclusion, we will sketch a critical approach to the notion of exchange, a notion which has had an enormous influence on the field of social relations at large. On the other hand, we wish to explore also the ethical concept, and jurical practice, of ‘hospitality’. This is particularly important today because of the growing magnitude of globalisation and migration, phenomena which define the ways in which ‘outsiders’ relate to each other in many contemporary societies. The paper analyses the issue of social inclusion under two distinct headings. The first, which involves a critique of the economic idea of exchange, attempts to highlight the limits and contradictions that beset this paradigm, which has become such an intrinsic aspect of our lives today, when it imposes itself onto the entire range of social relationships. Under the second heading, which re-examines the ethical and juridical topic of ‘hospitality’, we try to take another look at the problem of migratory movement and all its paradoxical aspects in the light of current processes of globalisation of markets. These two issues have never been so interconnected as they are today, especially if it is the case that the problem posed by the growing phenomenon of migration in democratic and multi-ethnic societies, which are more and more involved in difficult relationships with ‘outsiders’, is bound to reappear, for good or for ill, on the level of social inclusion.     

Urban markets as freight nodes in the Lagos Metropolis

This paper examines the structure of urban commodity flow in Lagos, Nigeria, by considering urban markets as freight generating functions. Earlier studies of traditional markets in Nigeria have been concerned primarily with their exchange functions. The paper estimates the volume and the variety of goods handled in each market and adopts the Graph Theoretic technique to structure the markets on the basis of the volume of freight exchanged between them. Some planning implications of the findings are discussed.     

Price reform and welfare: a transition model with queuing

We develop a general equilibrium model of an exchange economy with relative price distortions, where markets for consumption goods are cleared by resource-wasting queues. In general, greater distortions in relative prices lead to lower social welfare. We show, however, that in some cases a free market equilibrium may not exist if subsistence needs for commodities such as food are sufficiently high. In such an instance, removing price distortions will actually lower aggregate welfare.This paper is a revision of an essay from my dissertation at the University of Virginia. Primary thanks go to my advisors, Gerhard Glomm, Gertrude Schroeder, and Roger Sherman. Other helpful comments were made by Charles Engel, Gisela Meyer Escoe, and Chris Swann.     

From Tupperware to Scentsy: The gendered culture of women and direct sales

Consumer culture has transformed the lives of working women and family life for well over a century. Perhaps one of the most gender distinct forms of consumer culture introduced in the 20th century was the direct sales industry. The business model of direct sales depends on women's social circles as a means to market products directly to consumers, antithetical to retail spaces of malls and shopping outlets. In this literature review, I explore how women construct meaning behind products in this sales culture, while examining the emotional investment that women make as direct sales consultants and the personal outcomes of this investment. To begin, I include a brief history of the direct sales industry with a focus on three pioneering companies: Avon, Tupperware, and Mary Kay as foundational to women's contributions and involvement in the industry today. Next, I explore the pathways that motivate women's draw to direct selling as a form of emotional labor that allows them to balance professional work and family life while yielding minimal financial gain. I analyze the messaging of direct sales companies that cleverly speak directly to women's needs for recognition and assist in constructing personal identity and self‐worth. Finally, I examine trends for the future of direct sales companies as they look to maintain relevance through global markets and brand recognition that will expand beyond women's social circles and parties.     

Local Food and Civic Engagement: Do Farmers Who Market Local Food Feel More Responsible for Their Communities?

Do farmers who participate in local food systems attach greater importance to civic engagement than farmers whose livelihood is not tied to the vitality of local markets? The literature on local food as a social movement continues to paint a picture of local food systems as contributing to, and benefiting from, rich networks of civil society groups. Yet to date, few studies have directly addressed the question of whether marketing local food is actually associated with higher levels of civic engagement among farmers. In this paper, I draw on local capitalism theory to identify two different mechanisms—depth of economic reliance on local markets, and breadth of social networks related to local food sales—that might spur farmers who market local food to feel more responsible for their communities. Then, using data from a large-scale survey of specialty crop growers, I explore whether a relationship exists between farmer involvement with local food markets and attitudes toward civic engagement. Results suggest that while farmers strongly committed to local food markets attach greater importance to civic engagement, participation in multiple categories or kinds of local food supply chains is not necessarily associated with stronger civic values.     

Building versus maintaining a perceived confidence-based tax climate: Experimental evidence

A confidence-based climate between public administrations and citizens is essential. This paper argues and provides empirical evidence that depending on the perceived interaction history, different policies are needed to build versus maintain confidence. Applying the extended Slippery Slope Framework of tax compliance, an online and a laboratory experiment were conducted to explore whether tax authorities’ coercive and legitimate power have different effects depending on whether they are situated in an antagonism-based or confidence-based climate. Results showed that in an antagonism-based interaction climate, a combination of high coercive and high legitimate power changed the climate into a confidence-based interaction climate. In contrast, in a confidence-based climate the same power combination did not maintain but erode the climate. Results also suggest that confidence-based climates are maintained by low coercive power combined with high legitimate power. The paper concludes that interaction climates operate as psychological frames which guide how policy instruments affect taxpayers’ trust in the tax authorities.     

Integrated Organizational Identity: A Definition of Hybrid Organizations and a Research Agenda

In contemporary societies an increasing number of social needs have to be financed by market activities. In this regard, scholars started to discuss whether ‘Social Innovation’, ‘Social Entrepreneurship’, ‘CSR’, ‘Social Enterprise’, ‘Enterprising Nonprofits’, and ‘Social Business’ are able to provide solutions for financially sustainable social services. Just how these so-called Hybrid Organizations balance the tension between social and economic issues still requires conceptualization. This paper introduces the following definition based on the literature on organizational identity, civil society, and marketized nonprofits: Hybrids are characterized by an organizational identity that systematically integrates civil society and markets, exchange communal solidarity for financial and non-financial resources, calculate the market value of communal solidarity, and trade this solidarity for financial and nonfinancial resources. In other words they “Create Functional Solidarity”. Criteria to empirically observe Hybrid Organizations are also introduced and compared to similar concepts. The paper concludes with an outline of a research agenda.     

International Transmission Effect of Volatility between the Financial Markets during the Asian Financial Crisis

In this paper I propose an analysis of interaction among global economies by focusing on the regional financial markets of Asian countries during and after the Asian financial crisis in 1997, in order to study the dynamic relationship between stock returns and exchange rate changes. In addition, the impact of the Asian financial crisis is also examined. For the methodology, the bivariate EGARCH (exponential generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity) and EGARCH-X models are used to examine the interrelationship of stock markets and foreign exchange markets. The empirical results show that a two-way feedback relationship exists between the volatility of stock returns and exchange rate changes during the recovery period of the Asian countries. This result is important because the effect of volatility transmission between global financial markets can still be observed today. Furthermore, when comparing the volatility transmission during the crisis period with that during the recovery period, it shows that the spillover effect has increased during the recovery period, indicating that the strength of the transmission mechanism has increased after the Asian financial crisis. This result also suggests that the interactions of the stock and foreign exchange markets of Asian countries were affected by the Asian financial crisis, and the impact is greater for Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and especially Thailand, which were more vulnerable during the financial crisis.     

Migrant remittances and household wellbeing in urban Zimbabwe

Evidence from household surveying in December 2005 in Harare and Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, indicates that a wide network of international migrant remitters are ameliorating the economic crisis in Zimbabwe by sending monetary and in-kind transfers to over 50 per cent of urban households. The research combines quantitative measurement of scale and scope, with demographic and qualitative narrative to build a holistic picture of the typography of receiving and non-receiving households. A complex set of interrelated variables helps to explain why some households do and others do not receive income and goods from people who are away, and the economic and social extent of their subsequent benefit from them. Moreover, the mixed methods approach is designed to capture inter-household and likely macroeconomic effects of how households receive their goods and money; and of how they subsequently exchange (if applicable), store and spend it. Evidence emerges of a largely informal, international social welfare system, but one which is not without adverse inter-household effects for some. These include suffering exclusion from markets suffering from inflationary pressures, not least as a result of other people’s remittances. This paper explores the role of remittances, within this internationalised informal welfare system which we can map from our household survey, in reframing vulnerability and marginalization differentially among and between our subject households.     

Fashion as consumer entrepreneurship: Emergent risk culture,social network markets,and the launch of Vogue in China

China has a reputation as an economy based on utility: the large‐scale manufacture of low‐priced goods. But useful values like functionality, fitness for purpose and efficiency are only part of the story. More important are what Veblen called “honorific” values, arguably the driving force of development, change and value in any economy. To understand the Chinese economy therefore, it is not sufficient to point to its utilitarian aspect. Honorific status‐competition is a more fundamental driver than utilitarian cost‐competition. We argue that “social network markets” are the expression of these honorific values, relationships and connections that structure and coordinate individual choices. This paper explores how such markets are developing in China in the area of fashion and fashion media. These, we argue, are an expression of “risk culture” for high‐end entrepreneurial consumers and producers alike, providing a stimulus to dynamic innovation in the arena of personal taste and comportment, as part of an international cultural system based on constant change. We examine the launch of Vogue China in 2005, and China's reception as a fashion player among the international editions of Vogue, as an expression of a “decisive moment” in the integration of China into an international social network market based on honorific values.     

The Importance of Ownership Arrangements in U.S. Agriculture1

Abstract According to a number of observers of the U.S. economy, large publicly traded corporations can be viewed as a social problem primarily because of their association with the concentration of wealth and power. In agriculture, nine states have laws which restrict or proscribe public corporations from engaging in farming. Also, groups and individuals have attempted to preserve non-corporate production enterprises in agriculture through the establishment of direct markets such as farmers' markets. Proponents of such efforts believe public corporations have negative economic impacts; opponents of such efforts, especially efforts to establish and retain anti-corporate farming laws, argue that corporations can provide economic benefits to rural areas. These debates beg the question of whether ownership and direct marketing arrangements have important influences on economic outcomes such as levels of cash returns from farming and increases in the number of farms realizing cash gains. Using multi-year, county-level data from the Census of Agriculture, this study finds that, even when holding a number of important variables constant, ownership arrangements, as well as the (interaction between the percentage of total sales which are direct sales and the percentage of farms selling directly, are important determinants of both net cash returns and the percentage of farms realizing cash gains.     

The anatomy of a deception: Fraud and finesse in the Mock Auction sales ‘con’

In this paper we analyze recordings of the Mock Auction sales con and describe the various rhetorical and performative strategies employed by the seller/deceiver to accomplish sales success. Two features that distinguish this con from others are that sales are obtained from a crowd of shoppers and that the victims rarely complain after they have been deceived. We outline the principal skills that are brought into play by these salespeople to obtain sales and to manage the audiences' quietude. We show that the Mock Auction is, fundamentally, a social and interactional accomplishment.     

Consumer possessions,consumer passions,and subjective well-being

Speculation about the linkages between consumer products, consumption-related attitudes, and subjective well-being is prominent in the social sciences. This paper examines three issues in this literature using data collected in 1989 and 1990. The first issue is whether the accumulation and anticipated accumulation of different types of consumer goods foster subjective well-being. Second is whether accumulation and anticipated accumulation explain the well-established relationship between income and subjective well-being. These issues are explored with two alternative measures that incorporate different assumptions about the relative importance of ownership and the newness of products. The third issue is whether passions for the new are positively or negatively related to subjective well-being. Although some results indicate that the heavy theoretical emphasis on the importance of consumer markets for subjective well-being and the income-subjective well-being relationship is overdrawn, others provide weak support for a market-centric perspective that emphasizes the positive consequences of accumulating different types of consumer goods. Different types of consumer goods fill different niches in individuals' lives as they age. Lastly, the passion for new experiences in the marketplace is positively related to subjective well-being.     

The demand for social interaction

In this paper social interaction is modeled as a consumer good. A model of household production is employed to derive the demand for social interaction. The model shows that the demand for social interaction is a function of its price, the price of other goods and income. The theory is tested with data from the General Social Survey and the results show that social interaction can be explained as the consequence of utility maximizing behavior by individuals. These results are in contrast to social capital theorists who have attributed these changes to factors such as increased community heterogeneity.     

Die Legitimität von Finanzregimen

In this article we propose a financial regime typology that adds the role of cultural legitimacy to financial market regulation. Bridging Comparative Political Economy and Economic Sociology we refer to a German Weberian tradition of institutionalist research that has stressed the intermediate position of institutions between social values and concrete market action. Financial regimes do not only define formal rules and organizational patterns, they also install symbolic boundaries between legitimate and illegitimate finance, providing cultural acceptance to these morally and historically “problematic” markets. The article then explores four fields of institutional regulation of stock exchanges in Germany and UK since the 19th century: (1) the creation of an official arena, (2) rules of market access, (3) the legitimate trading goods and (4) rules for penalizing misconduct. We show that German financial regulation was integrative and wanted to protect the real economy by corporatively embedding finance and restrain harmful transactions. In contrast, British financial regulation was segmental and tried to protect the real economy by installing a socially exclusive club of traders governed by professional expertise and hierarchy. This new typification of financial regimes will help to understand the resilience of national financial regulatory patterns across crises and the obstacles to a transnational harmonization of rules. Political reform-making is tied to institutional principles of the past.     

Framing the Purchase of Human Goods: Cosmetic Surgery Consumption in Capitalist South Korea

Sociological and cultural research on market participation has been preoccupied with creative markets and traditional labor markets, overlooking alternate types of markets, particularly those of human goods which have proliferated in Asia. This article analyzes South Korea's cosmetic surgery market to examine how and why consumers participate in markets of human goods on the microlevel vis-à-vis macrolevel social structures in an advanced capitalist economy. This article theorizes two cognitive frames (normative conformity and competitive edge) that rationalize and motivate surgical modifications as an alternative vehicle for financial and marital stability in response to macrolevel economic challenges from the nation's developmental trajectory and cultural anxieties from its Confucian traditions about marriage.     

Partnersuche im Internet

The aim of this study is to analyze the role of educational qualification in the process of partner choice in “digital marriage markets”. Using unique interaction data of individuals participating in an online dating site, we are able to reconstruct early processes of partner choices of men and women. Our results show that there is a clear tendency towards educational homophily. Individuals therefore have a strong preference for partners with the same educational level. This is particularly true for women. Our results also support the exchange theoretical hypothesis that educational homophily is stronger the higher the level of education is. If we analyze heterophile contact behavior, it is obvious that women are still reluctant to contact men with lower educational degrees. They clearly prefer men with higher educational qualification. For men it is still quite usual to contact women with lower educational degrees. Our findings therefore underline that partner choice today is still dominated by quite traditional gender preferences. Overall, our results show that digital marriage markets do not reduce social distances between social groups. Rather, the high level of homophily seems to close relationships between social groups.     

A critical evaluation of the commodification thesis

A recurring theme across the social sciences is that non‐capitalist production is disappearing albeit slowly and unevenly, and is being replaced by a commodified economy in which goods and services are produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange. In this paper, however, I evaluate critically this commodification thesis. Even in the heartland of commoditisation ‐ the advanced economies. Large economic spaces are identified where alternative economic relations and motives prevail. Rather than view them as leftovers of pre‐capitalist formations, this paper argues that they are the result of both the contradictions inherent in the structural shifts associated with the pursuit of commodification as well as the existence of‘cultures of resistance’, As such, they are viewed as 'spaces of hope’which highlight the demonstrable construction and practice of alternative social relations and logic's of work outside profit‐motivated market‐oriented exchange.