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Theories of social networks offer abstract perspectives of what social networks are and how they are connected to other features of the social world. This chapter gives an overview of three recent perspectives: (1) Theorists of action (Burt, Coleman, Lin, Hedström) regard social networks as objective structures restricting or enabling individual action. Networks become a resource (social capital) that actors strive to maximize. (2) Authors following pragmatism or symbolic interactionism (Emirbayer, Martin, Crossley) consider social networks as patterns of subjective meaning arising out of the interaction between actors. This approach is linked to field theoretical thinking, considering networks as arising out of the mutual orientation in fields. (3) Relational sociologists (White, Tilly, Mische, Padgett, Fuhse) treat social networks as infused with meaning that is processed in communication/transaction/switchings between actors. Relational sociology has been amended to study networks of symbols and the communicative dynamics of social networks. |
