A New Principles of Economics

CHAPTER EIGHTNetworks and social interaction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003094869-12

1. Introduction

Economic sociology suggests that markets are embedded in social networks.¹ In this chapter, we go one step further and treat markets as networks. When we skip the term ‘social’ here, we indicate that we focus on markets not only as forms of social interaction but also as material networks, such as geographical networks of marketplaces or the technological networks enabling human consumption (such as supermarkets and the related supply chains).² In a most general sense, the technosphere is a network structure, with markets being deeply shaped by technologies of transport and communication. However, in this chapter, we concentrate on the social interaction ...