社会网络、文化制度与求职行为:嵌入问题

“嵌入”作为新经济社会学的重要理论概念之一 ,已得到学者们的广泛认同。本文提出“双重嵌入”的概念 ,一者表示经济行为嵌入于行动者所处的社会网络之中 ,二者表示社会网络本身也是嵌入于更为广阔的文化制度背景之中的。按照这种视角 ,可以发现 :在劳动力市场中 ,求职行为嵌入于求职者所处的社会网络之中 ,同时这种网络又受到宏观的文化与制度背景的制约。可见 ,“双重嵌入”在一定程度上可以视为对嵌入理论的一项发展。借助于这一概念框架对劳动力市场进行社会学式的分析 ,将有助于解决微观行动与宏观社会结构之间的理论鸿沟问题

Social Network, Cultural System, and Job-seeking Behavior: An Issue of Embeddedness

As one of the most representative notions of New Economic Sociology, "embeddedness" has now been widely accepted. This paper puts forward the concept of "dual embeddedness" to indicate that economic behaviors are embedded in social networks on the one hand, and social networks themselves are embedded in broader settings of culture and institutions on the other. In the labor market, job seeking is embedded in actor's social networks. At the same time, social networks are embedded in social culture and institutions. Hence, "dual embeddedness", to a certain extent, is considered to be the development of the theory of embeddedness. To apply this concept to the labor market helps to solve the problem of theoretical gap between behavior at the micro level and social structure at the macro level.