Predicting power in exchange networks: a brief history and introduction to the issues

Abstract Network exchange theory addresses the central question of sociological theory, how to predict activity from structure. This paper introduces a special edition of Social Networks which includes papers offering alternative theories. The edition is exhaustive for it contains all recent developments in the formal theory of exchange networks. This paper introduces the reader to past historical development, the competition between power-dependence theory and elementary theory as well as major research findings as they relate to that development. The paper concludes with a new ‘null-inclusion-exclusion’ typology for network connection which is far more general than the ‘negative-positive’ typology previously used.

[1]  Thomas D. Cook,et al.  Subject effects in laboratory research: An examination of subject roles, demand characteristics, and valid inference. , 1972 .

[2]  D P Schultz,et al.  The human subject in psychological research. , 1969, Psychological bulletin.

[3]  G. Becker,et al.  The Economic Approach to Human Behavior , 1978 .

[4]  M. Orne.  On the social psychology of the psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand characteristics and their implications. , 1962 .

[5]  David Willer.  Analysis and composition as theoretic procedures , 1984 .

[6]  K. Cook,et al.  Power, Equity and Commitment in Exchange Networks , 1978 .

[7]  D. Heckathorn.  Extensions of Power-Dependence Theory: The Concept of Resistance , 1983 .

[8]  J. Berger,et al.  Do Sociological Theories Grow? , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[9]  Peter V. Marsden,et al.  Restricted Access in Networks and Models of Power , 1983, American Journal of Sociology.

[10]  M. Sahlins.  Stone Age Economics , 2020 .

[11]  K. Cook,et al.  Power Relations in Exchange Networks: A Comment on "Network Exchange Theory" , 1990 .

[12]  David Willer.  Vulnerability and the Location of Power Positions: Comment on Cook, Emerson, Gillmore, and Yamagishi , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[13]  K. Cook,et al.  Point and Line Vulnerability as Bases for Predicting the Distribution of Power in Exchange Networks: Reply to Willer , 1986, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  J. Elster.  Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality , 1985 .

[15]  David Willer,et al.  Power Relations in Exchange Networks , 1988 .

[16]  David Willer,et al.  Connection and power in centralized exchange networks , 1990 .

[17]  S. Lukes.  Power: A Radical View , 1974 .

[18]  Dennis Hume Wrong.  Power: Its Forms, Bases and Uses , 1979 .

[19]  D. Wrong.  Some Problems in Defining Social Power , 1968, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  D. Heckathorn.  Valid and Invalid Interpersonal Comparisons: Response to Emerson, Cook, Gillmore, and Yamagishi , 1983 .

[21]  K. Cook,et al.  Social Exchange Theory , 1989, Theoretical Sociology.

[22]  I. Lakatos.  Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes , 1976 .

[23]  Charles H. Powers.  Clarification and Extension of Emerson and Cook's Exchange Theory , 1985 .

[24]  Karen S. Cook,et al.  Network Connections and the Distribution of Power in Exchange Networks , 1988, American Journal of Sociology.

[25]  K. Cook,et al.  The Distribution of Power in Exchange Networks: Theory and Experimental Results , 1983, American Journal of Sociology.