Date: 25th-26th of September, 2009
Site: Sofia University, Department of Sociology, Sofia, Bulgaria
Organiser: ISA, RC02 “Economy and Society”, the Department of Sociology, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and the Bulgarian Sociological Association
Topics: The conference aims at reviewing the major conceptual tools that economic sociology has proposed to understand the various forms of interplay between markets and network structures. How markets are socially constructed via networks, whether markets are social networks? How networks of individuals and firms can serve as a competitive advantage on the market? As a context, of interest here is market opening and closing as an interaction of global orders and national traditions. Globalization is primarily geared toward the opening of markets. However, open markets produce tensions and crises, whose settlement involves new forms of closure through re-regulation on a transnational level. In this way, national forms of market order are getting under pressure of adjustment.
How do these macro-processes influence the formation, maintenance and dissolution of networks of market players? How do the corporations build their networks and what is their effect on the national (dis)integrity in particular? What kind of networks form and maintain the small entrepreneurs? How their development is connected to the migration streams in the global world and what is the specific role of the family networks? The expectation is to study how the interaction of processes located at different levels of institutionalization produces new, more open and more flexible market and network structures. The important focus is expected to be the theoretical clarification of the very concept of network and the way in which the networks mechanisms generate social capital. Social capital is seen here as competitive advantage on the market which has network origin. Related focus of interest is on information as a core of intersection between market and network: how and under what circumstances the structure of prior relations among people and organisations in a market can affect, or replace, the flow of market information and what people can do with it? The network mechanisms such as contagion (imitation), prominence (reputation), closure, brokerage, etc. should be explored.
Topics:
• The Concept of Network; Network Formation, Maintenance and Dissolution: the Network Structure of Social Capital; Markets as Social Networks
• Small Entrepreneurship, Family Networks and Migration in a Globalizing World
• Corporation in Networks – National (Dis)Integrity?
• Different Market Routes – Different Networks
The general objective of the conference is to attract papers reporting on recent empirical research, theoretical contributions and, of course, good combinations of the two.
Language: English
Preliminary Conference Programme
25 September 2009
9.00-9.30 Registration of participants
9.30-9.45 Opening Address and Welcome
Tanya Chavdarova, Sofia University, Department of Sociology
9.45-10.45 Keynote Speaker: Olivier Godechot, CNRS, Paris
"Hold-up” in Finance: The Conditions of Possibility for High Bonuses in the
Financial Industry
10.45-11.00 Coffee Break
11.00-13.00 Session 1: How Networks (Re)shape Market Exchange
Moderator: Sabine Gensior
11.00-11.30 Vadim Radaev, State University – Higher School of Economics, Department of Sociology, Moscow
Atomized Actions and Social Ties: The Structure of Competitive Relationships in New Russian Retail Market
11.30-12.00 Zoya Kotelnikova, State University – Higher School of Economics, Department of Sociology, Moscow
The Continuity of Intertemporal Exchanges between Retailers and Suppliers in Russian Consumer Markets
12.00-12.30 Alberto Arce, Wageningen University, Rural Development Sociology Group, Wageningen and María Laura Viteri, National Institute of Agricultural Technology of Argentina
Quality: Different Meanings and Negotiations around Fresh Fruits and Vegetables
12.30-13.00 Tanya Chavdarova, Sofia University, Department of Sociology
From Informal Networks to Market Anonymity: The Off-the-books Self-employment among Young Bulgarians
13.00-14.30 Lunch
14.30-16.30 Session 2: Networking in Job Searching, Recruiting and Status Attainment
Moderator: Olivier Godechot
14.30-15.00 Martina Rebien, Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg
The Use of Social Networks for Recruiting Processes from a Firms Perspective
15.00-15.30 Stoyan Novakov, Sofia University, Department of Sociology
Social Networks and Labour Market Positioning of the Bulgarian Sociology Students
15.30-16.00 Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe and Bart Van De Putte, University of Ghent, Department
of Sociology
Social Support as a Form of Social Capital in Status Attainment Research. An
Explorative Study
16.00-16.30 Marc Hoeglinger, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Research Department, Zürich, Martin Abraham, University of Erlangen-Nurenberg, and Jürg Arpagaus, Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, Zürich
Networks on the Market for Employee Training. How Embeddedness Improves the Performance of External Training Providers
16.30-17.00 Coffee Break
17.00-18.30 Session 3: Economic Dynamics, Innovations and Social Networks
Moderator: Vadim Radaev
17.00-17.30 Sinisa Zaric and Vojislav Babic, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Economics
Social Capital Influence on Global Economic Crisis
17.30-18.00 Sabine Pfeiffer, Daniela Wühr, Petra Schütt, Institute for Social Science Research, Munich
Innovation, Market, Networks – Interdependencies, Synergies and Contradictions in Technical Innovation Processes
18.00-18.30 Luisa Veloso, Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, Lisbon
The Social Conditions of Markets Construction: Economic Field and Social Networks
26 September 2009
9.15-10.15 Keynote Speaker: David Stark, Columbia University, Department of Sociology, New York
Political Holes in the Economy: Historical Network Analysis of Firm-Party Ties in Hungary
10.15-10.30 Coffee Break
10.30-12.30 Session 4: Social Bonds: Firms – Communities – Civil Society
Moderator: Oscar Contreras
10.30-11.00 Silvia Gómez -Mestres, Sarah Hoeksma, and Jose Luis Molina, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Bellaterra
The Social Networks of Bulgarian Entrepreneurs in Catalonia (Roses and Barcelona)
11.00-11.30 Kónya Hanna, Corvinus University of Budapest, Department of Sociology
The Appearance of the Moldavian Csángó Elite as a Consequence of Transnational
Migration. The Importance of Social Capital and Network Membership
11.30-12.00 Efim Fidrya, North-Eastern State University, Department of Sociology and
Political Science, Magadan
The Formation of the Market Culture and Network Structure: Logic of the ‘Domestic’ World and Social Capital
12.00-12.30 Gergo Papp, Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Sociology and Social Policy
Gift and Money: The Transition to Capitalism
12.30-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.30 Session 5: Networks: Regional and Global Aspects
Moderator: David Stark
14.00-14.30 Sabine Gensior, Brandenburg University of Technology, Department of Economic and Industrial Sociology, Cottbus
Reorganisation of Companies and Regional Economies – Societal Transformation, Organisational and Personal Networks
14.30-15.00 Oscar Contreras, University of Sonora, Centre for North American Studies, Sonora
Local Networks and Absorption Capacity in the Auto Industry: Upgrading Low Cost Regions within Global Production Networks. A Case Study in Northern Mexico
15.00-15.30 Tatiana Stoitchkova, South-West University, Cultural Studies/ Faculty of Arts, Blagoevgrad
Literature market, Networks and Some Characteristics of Literary Prizes
15.30-16.00 Coffee Break
16.00-17.30 Session 6: Social Capital and Post-communist Market Culture
Moderator: Svetla Stoeva
16.00-16.30 Temenuga Rakadjiiska, University of National and World Economy, Department of Economics, Sofia
Social Capital in the Field of Bulgarian Labour Market
16.30-17.00 Galina Koleva, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Institute of Sociology, Communities and Identities Department, Sofia
Entrepreneurial Resources as Mirrored in the Social Representation of Entrepreneurs (in one Bulgarian weekly newspaper)
17.00-17.30 Violeta Vuckovic, Martin Luther University, Institute of Sociology, Halle- Wittenberg
The Role of the Civic Society in the Transformative Processes of the Working
Organisations – Research Design for Empirical Comparison on Serbia and East
Germany
17.30-17.45 Closing of the conference
Tanya Chavdarova, Sofia University, Department of Sociology
17.45 End of the Conference
Contact: Assoc. Prof. Tanya Chavdarova (Sofia University, Department of Sociology, 125 Tzarigradsko Shosse Blvd., Bl. 4, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria)
E-mail: [email protected], Fax: +359 2 870 6260
Internet: http://www.netmark.bsa-bg.org