Conference Agenda

Social mechanisms are essential processes within a social system (Bunge, 2004) that emerge as responses to the various challenges actors face in their daily practices (Gross, 2009). The significance of social mechanisms in relation to social reproduction and change (Lazega, Snijders & Wittek, 2022) can be more effectively examined at the meso level (Lazega, 2022; Fine, 2006).

This paper adopts an agent-based approach to understand the social mechanisms that account for the price formation of fish catches in an artisanal fishing cove in Chile. Based on previous ethnographic research (Pulgar, Gómez & Molina, 2024), we identify two interconnected domains of social practice: the ecological landscape (the sea) and the harbor fish market.

In the ecological domain, fishers employ three strategies to gather information about navigation conditions and the localization of their catches: returning to the location where they fished the previous day, following trusted fishers, or exploring new areas. These strategies have resulted in the formation of close-knit cliques among fishers at sea, centered around productive catches. However, resource decline may strain these connections and encourage more individualistic strategies.

The market domain operates on a concatenation principle: the first fisher to arrive establishes the price, known as the “reference price.” Later, fishers observe this price and add it to their margins and costs to determine their own prices, creating a price chain in which every price formation influences the next one. This mechanism, shaped by the sequence of arrivals and the observation of established prices, illustrates how economic information disseminates and mediates the interactions between buyers and sellers.

The combination of two social mechanisms –the actual fishing strategy and the price chain in the market—account for the social production of new value, marketed fish catches in this case.

Educational technology companies (Edtech) develop digital educational resources such as educational video games, learning platforms, and interactive textbooks for teachers and students. This study, conducted among Edtech entrepreneurs operating in primary education, explores the conditions underpinning the emergence of an Edtech market shaped by public policy.

Public support for the French Edtech sector is closely tied to the state's prerogative in education, acting as an intermediary between Edtech firms (supply) and the teaching community (demand). Unlike traditional market mechanisms, teachers cannot directly purchase digital educational resources; acquisitions are mediated by local authorities. This structural constraint has led the French Edtech sector to form a dense network of collaborations, partnerships, consortia, and subcontracting arrangements. After addressing network boundary definition, this presentation explores relational interdependence and its effects on market structuring.

To establish a comprehensive interorganizational network (Eloire et al., 2011), the study expanded its scope beyond Edtech firms to include actors from professional associations, incubators, foundations, and investment funds. This qualitative empirical approach—combining netnography, interviews, and observations at trade fairs and summer schools—has identified 78 individuals involved in primary-level digital resource development or the broader Edtech ecosystem. The findings underscore how information exchange (technical skills, funding opportunities, commercial prospects) and informal relationships among competitors mitigate market uncertainty and contribute to structuring the sector. In this competitive landscape, collaboration among competitors depends on their social capital (Lazega, 2008).

Additionally, interviews (16) with Edtech entrepreneurs (14) and officials from the Ministry of National Education's Digital Directorate (2) provide insights into entrepreneurial trajectories, sectoral dynamics, network segmentations based on social capital, and public-private collaboration.

Bibliography

Aspers, Patrik, Asaf Darr. « Le rôle des salons professionnels dans la création de marchés et d’industries : » Terrains & travaux, vol. N° 44, no 1, juillet 2024, p. 147 74.

Eloire, Fabien., et al. « Application de l'analyse des réseaux complets à l'échelle interorganisationnelle : Apports et limites ». Terrains & travaux, 2011/2 n° 19, 2011. p.77-98.

Lazega, Emmanuel. « Théorie de la coopération entre concurrents : interdépendances, discipline sociale et processus sociaux », Le Libellio d’Aegis, volume 4, n° 3, hiver 2008-2009, pp. 1-5.

This presentation examines the collective mechanisms that sustain the functioning and expansion of multi-level marketing (MLM) networks. Adopted by companies such as Tupperware, Vorwerk, and Travorium, this business model relies on the mobilization of an independent sales force to distribute products and services. Its specificity lies in its recruitment-based development structure, which gives it both a reticular and hierarchical organization, where income levels and status depend on the breadth and depth of a member’s downline. By combining interviews, digital and in-person ethnography, and social network analysis, this study highlights the relational work performed by individuals who join such structures. It reveals the ambivalence of these relational infrastructures, where members are simultaneously micro-entrepreneurs – often engaging in MLM alongside another professional activity – while being subjected to a rigid hierarchy that guides, or even prescribes, their practices. Particular attention is given to the role of members with significant social and relational capital (those positioned at the upper levels of the hierarchy and compensation structure) and their ability to influence both individual and collective dynamics. The key issue is to understand how these actors, by establishing interdependent relationships and leveraging collective learning mechanisms (such as the transmission of sales and recruitment techniques) and social control (through sponsor and peer monitoring), organize the work of lower-ranking members to extract both economic and symbolic gains.

The current literature on comparisons of networks is often based on a broad network science perspective, with the assumption that general local mechanisms drive, on their own, the emergence of global patterns. In this presentation, we extend a neo-structural approach to social mechanisms by comparing networks. We use stochastic blockmodels (SBMs) to find variations in similar social processes of collective agency across different organizational contexts. SBMs help us understand and compare how actors manage cooperation dilemmas in these contexts. As an empirical illustration of our approach, we focus on processes of collective learning as measured by advice networks in three different organizational settings, i.e. among lawyers, among priests, and among scientists. Analyses reveal differences in role systems and strategic uses of acceptable homophily across these settings, skilfully mitigating the divisive effects of rigid status differences in efforts to construct common bodies of knowledge.

Collective action refers to the coordinated efforts of individuals toward a shared objective. Understanding the social determinants of large-scale collective action is crucial for addressing pressing societal challenges, such as pandemics. However, the structural conditions that foster large-scale collective action remain insufficiently understood.

This study examines whether social capital facilitates large-scale cooperation by leveraging the onset of COVID-19 non-pharmaceutical interventions in the United States as a natural experiment. I investigate how three dimensions of social capital within counties shape the community’s collective response to these interventions: (i) inter-class friendship ties between individuals from different income levels, (ii) network interconnectedness—the clustering of local social networks, and (iii) civic engagement—the prevalence of voluntary associations and civic organizations.

Employing a difference-in-differences design and causal forests to study effect heterogeneity, I analyze fine-grained geolocation and mobility data and social media friendship networks in 2020-2021. My findings indicate that ZIP code areas (N = 23,028) with a higher prevalence of inter-class friendship ties exhibited greater compliance with shelter-in-place directives, as measured by reductions in geographic mobility. The other two forms of social capital have no effects on collective action.

This suggests that economic diversity in social networks, rather than network interconnectedness or civic engagement, enhances cooperation at scale in an emergency. These results underscore the potential of inter-class social integration for facilitating collective action—an insight of increasing relevance as societies face challenges that require urgent and widespread cooperation, especially where economic inequality has been rising.