Conference Agenda

In the cutthroat world of VC investment, founders compete in a ruthless game of attention-seeking for a VC partner’s time. Yet time is also freely spent on the seemingly frivolous: cocktail receptions, coffee chats, holiday celebrations and even gym sessions, where VC partners and startup founders spend precious time and effort. In a field where half an hour of attention could be worth millions in investment, the question that begs to be asked in the face of this apparent contradiction between temporal scarcity and abundance is, why? Why are social relationships valued to the extent that they are, in the world of venture investing, that its participants deem it a worthwhile venture to commit to?

We investigate ethnographically venture capital’s relationships with AI and blockchain startup founders, based on interviews and field observations in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Singapore, which are major hubs of venture capital. We argue that VC investment relationships occupy a distinct space in the array of economic social relationships. They harbour significant distinctions in context, patterns and expectations when compared with other types of social relationships in the business and personal worlds. They are simultaneously vessels of mutual evaluation and signifiers of social proximity. This double bind of business utility and real-life intimacy—what this paper would dub as “utilitarian intimacy”—sets VC investment relationships apart from other relational norms studied by economic sociology.

The study of social networks has traditionally emphasized structural factors in determining network resilience, yet recent research has increasingly recognized the role of individual agency in shaping network responses to disruption. This paper investigates how actors actively reconfigure their ego-networks in response to exogenous shocks, focusing on the strategies they employ to sustain or restore network functionality. We explore these dynamics through a longitudinal case study of the political, economic, and criminal networks embedded in the “Mafia Capitale” scandal in Rome, Italy (2012–2015). The case provides an exceptional setting to examine agentic responses to network disruption, as it involves a business network that blurred the boundaries between legal and illegal practices and faced a major external shock: the election of a new mayor committed to disrupting clientelist ties in public procurement.

Our analysis identifies four distinct strategies actors deployed to restore network effectiveness: turtling, group leverage, direct contact leverage, and broker leverage. These mechanisms reveal how individuals navigate political and institutional shifts, leveraging their existing and newly formed connections to maintain influence and operational continuity. By combining social network analysis with qualitative historical methods, this study moves beyond structural explanations of resilience, offering a micro-foundational perspective on how actors dynamically manage network churn. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on network agency and resilience by demonstrating how actors proactively adapt to institutional change and external shocks, with implications for research on organizational networks, governance, and institutional transitions.

The study of political conflict often assumes that individuals’ social ties determine their political actions. While this structuralist approach has been successful in many contexts, it struggles to account for the actions of political elites, whose power depends on maintaining strategic flexibility. Political divisions among elites are largely endogenous to the political process and cannot be reduced to social position. Building on recent developments in social network theory, this paper advances an “action-in-networks” approach that, rather than using networks to predict sides, focuses on the dynamics of side-taking—how elites make, maintain, and sever ties to navigate the political field. We illustrate this perspective through a case study of John Williams, a key political figure in early New York who switched from the Republican to the Federalist Party in 1795. Using a dataset of over 300 personal letters, we show that Williams’ switch was not a predictable outcome of his network position but a strategic move that triggered a reconfiguration of his political and social relationships. Our analysis reveals three key insights: (1) Political elites operate in multiple, intersecting networks. (2) Political action involves not only the making but also the strategic breaking of ties to create new opportunities. (3) Political action is shaped by broader cultural logics embedded in social relations. By the late 1790s, partisanship had displaced older forms of patron-clientelism. Williams, who perhaps did not fully understand this change, found himself trapped in an uneasy alliance—one that ultimately undermined his political prospects.

Regulatory oversight of the U.S. animal agriculture sector is distributed across multiple federal agencies, including United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and Center for Disease Control (CDC), each with distinct yet interrelated responsibilities. Collaboration and coordination across these agencies are critical to upholding the food system and ensuring food safety, worker protections, and public health. Yet, differing organizational missions, resource constraints, and institutional barriers can present challenges to coordination and collaboration.

In this research, I use qualitative network research. I draw on interviews conducted with federal agency employees and analysis of ego-network data, collected using Network Canvas, to map inter- and intra- agency collaborative networks. I describe some of the methodological challenges to conducting research with federal agency representatives – challenges that have been intensified in the current U.S. political-economic context.

I identify the barriers and benefits of regulatory collaboration and coordination, as described by research participants. I analyze challenges to collaborative networks through interview and social network data, including information silos, communication barriers, and regulatory fragmentation. I detail positive outcomes of interagency coordination in the realm of the U.S. animal agriculture sector, including crisis responses, enhanced information-sharing mechanisms, and joint enforcement efforts that strengthen regulatory oversight and response to emergent threats, including disease outbreaks.

In identifying key barriers and facilitators of collaboration—such as trust, shared goals, and institutional support—this research provides a roadmap for strengthening interagency networks and food system resiliency.

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) networks operate on a business model that combines the direct sale of products and services with the continuous recruitment of new sellers, who are integrated into a hierarchical structure based on sponsorship. Far from being static entities, these networks evolve according to individual trajectories and group dynamics, shaped by mechanisms of co-optation, social control, and collective learning. This presentation is based on a qualitative study conducted within a network of female sellers affiliated with a company specializing in cosmetics and dietary supplements, referred to as Vital Nature. Using a multi-method approach that combines interviews, digital and in-person ethnography, and network modelling, this study examines the processes of tie formation, stabilization, and transformation within the network. Special attention is given to the mechanisms through which highly influential members at upper hierarchical levels shape and regulate activity within the network, ensuring its continuity while reproducing interdependent relationships and labor dynamics characteristic of MLM structures. Digital platforms – particularly social media – play a crucial role in these processes: it facilitates co-optation and the deployment of remote supervision strategies, notably by enabling social control through the monitoring of members' online content. Finally, by analysing the upward mobility trajectories and profiles of the most committed sellers, this study questions the conditions of success in an industry where the majority ultimately fails.