scholarly journals Management and Organization Review Special Issue ‘Social Networks ‒ The Dark and Bright Sides of Informal Networks’

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-444
Author(s):  
Sven Horak ◽  
Fida Afiouni ◽  
Yanjie Bian ◽  
Alena Ledeneva ◽  
Maral Muratbekova-Touron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
International Context ◽  
Transitioning Countries ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Rich History

Research on the mechanisms of organizing and managing via interpersonal relations has a rich history in the management and organization-oriented literature. So far, however, the informal dimension of managing and organizing by drawing on informal networks in an international context has received comparably less attention. Recent research has pointed out that social capital and network theories have largely been developed by Western scholars based on circumstances and social structures that are typical of Western societies. Thus, current theory takes into account to a lesser extent their character and nature and the way in which informal ties and networks are formed in other parts of the world (Ledeneva, 2018; Li, 2007b; Qi, 2013; Sato, 2010). Besides the growing body of literature concerned with informal ties and networks in emerging and transitioning countries, for example guanxi (China), blat/ svyazi (Russia), and wasta (Arab World), a trend for analyzing pervasive informal networks in advanced and industrialized economies, such as yongo (Korea), has arisen. While insights from the latter research stream indicate that informal networks persist, the results generated in both research streams will help in developing the extant informal network theories further.

scholarly journals Management and Organization Review Special Issue ‘Social Networks ‒ The Dark and Bright Sides of Informal Networks’

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 641-646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Horak ◽  
Fid Afiouni ◽  
Yanjie Bian ◽  
Alena Ledeneva ◽  
Maral Muratbekova-Touron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Current Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
International Context ◽  
Transitioning Countries ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Rich History

Research on the mechanisms of organizing and managing via interpersonal relations has a rich history in the management and organization-oriented literature. So far, however, the informal dimension of managing and organizing by drawing on informal networks in an international context has received comparably less attention. Recent research has pointed out that social capital and network theories have largely been developed by Western scholars based on circumstances and social structures that are typical of Western societies. Thus, current theory takes into account to a lesser extent their character and nature and the way in which informal ties and networks are formed in other parts of the world (Ledeneva, 2018; Li, 2007b; Qi, 2013; Sato, 2010). Besides the growing body of literature concerned with informal ties and networks in emerging and transitioning countries, for example guanxi (China), blat/svyazi (Russia), and wasta (Arab World), a trend for analyzing pervasive informal networks in advanced and industrialized economies, such as yongo (Korea), has arisen. While insights from the latter research stream indicate that informal networks persist, the results generated in both research streams will help in developing the extant informal network theories further.

scholarly journals Informal Networks: Dark Sides, Bright Sides, and Unexplored Dimensions

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Horak ◽  
Fida Afiouni ◽  
Yanjie Bian ◽  
Alena Ledeneva ◽  
Maral Muratbekova-Touron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
International Management ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Business Success ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Informal Networks ◽  
Culturally Specific ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Corrupt Conduct

AbstractInformal networking can be seen as a positive activity with beneficial outcomes for individuals, firms, and society as a whole, but informal networking can also lead to collusion, cliques, nepotism, and other forms of unethical or corrupt conduct – largely related to research on emerging markets. To date, the construction of informal networks and their cultural intertwinement and development have not been a focus of international management and organization studies, a gap that this special issue seeks to address. This special issue contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics of informal networks and their ambivalence, in which the same networks have different modes of operation and have positive and negative sides intermittently or simultaneously. We demonstrate the context in which informal networks operate, highlight their complexity, and encourage dialogue among scholars studying informal networks in a variety of countries. Using a context-based and comparative perspective allows us to conceptualize informal networks in a more integrated and balanced way. Understanding the workings of informal networking – known variously as guanxi, yongo, jentinho, wasta, and blat – in culturally specific settings, places Western values, social structures, and ideals of behavior in perspective and tests Western-centered assumptions, narratives, and theories. Because informal networking is a conventional way of conducting business in many countries, as depicted in this special issue, defining the bright (positive) and the dark (negative) sides of informal networks is critical for responsible management and business success at multinational corporations.

Markets are constantly collapsing: Reconceptualizing ‘the market’ as a quantum social wavefunction

2021 ◽  
pp. 102452942098782
Author(s):  
Michael Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Broad Framework

The quantum moment in International Relations theory challenges the taken for granted Newtonian assumptions of conventional theories, while offering a novel physical imaginary grounded in quantum mechanics. As part of the special issue on reconceptualizing markets, this article questions if prior efforts to conceptualize ‘the market’ have been unsuccessful at capturing the paradoxical microfoundational/macrostructural because of the Newtonian worldview within which much social science operates. By developing a new, quantum perspective on the market, taking the physical paradigm of the wavefunction, I seek to explore the connections between entanglement, nonlocality, interference and invisible social structures. To demonstrate the applicability of quantum thinking, I explore how global value chains and open economy politics might be ‘quantized’, through the mobilization of core concepts of quantum social theory, within the broad framework of the market as a quantum social wavefunction.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcia C. Inhorn ◽  
Konstantina Isidoros
Keyword(s):  
Arab World ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
Male Breadwinner ◽  
Arab Men ◽  
Revolutionary Period

In the aftermath of the 2011 “failed” Arab uprisings, anthropologists have been exploring the ways in which ordinary Arab men have been living through these precarious times, while also attempting to maintain some semblance of their former lives and fundamental humanity. Instead of relying on familiar scholarly tropes of “men in crisis” or “hegemonic masculinity,” anthropologists working in a variety of Arab countries and Western refugee settings have pointed to new conceptualizations of Arab manhood, thereby questioning dominant notions of “traditional” Arab masculinity and patriarchy. “Emergent masculinities” in the Arab world foreground new forms of male agency, as well as the emotional and moral worlds of Arab men living within larger familial, community, and national structures. In this special issue, anthropologists from six different countries explore Arab men’s lives in the post-revolutionary period of refugee crisis. Their cutting-edge anthropological scholarship reveals three pivotal themes: First, Arab masculinity and male breadwinner roles have changed dramatically in the post-revolutionary period, particular in Egypt, where conflicting stories of courage and corruption abound. Second, men who have been forced to flee their home countries, especially Syria, work hard to maintain a sense of masculine responsibility and dignity within stigmatizing refugee conditions. Finally, “doing” masculinity now requires special care and creativity on the part of Arab men. Arab men’s articulations of masculinity in practice, as revealed through detailed ethnographic accounts, highlight their everyday efforts to be “good men,” as well as “good at being men,” while living through these politically dangerous times.

Mediterranean geographies of protest

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Fregonese
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Resistance Movements ◽  
State Security ◽  
European Cities ◽  
The Mediterranean

This special issue of Euro-commentaries tackles the question of what links unprecedented anti-regime uprisings in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, with the largest protests in decades in several European cities. Beyond the specificities of individual cases, uprisings on both sides of the Mediterranean have highlighted strong and often violent collisions between resistance movements and state security. How are these collisions reshaping urban and political geographies in the Mediterranean? The papers presented here explore different aspects of the 2011 protests, and share the view that these are shaped by concerns for social justice, human rights and democracy, which are not a prerogative of the Arab world, but indicate instead more complex geographies.

On Structure and Agency in Ethnographies of Education: Examples from This Special Issue and More Generally

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 572-582 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis Beach
Keyword(s):  
Social Practices ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Dialectical Relationship ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Observational Practice ◽  
Development Possibility

The articles in this collection are about the development, possibility, exercise and possible frustration of human agency within educational exchanges. They are also all based on ethnography, which is now a common approach to educational research. Ethnography is not a seamless, neutral observational practice but is instead variable in relation to theoretical perspectives and methodological application. However, central to all approaches is an emphasis on an active and creative citizen and an assumption that there is a dialectical relationship between human social practices, human consciousness and social structures. The similarities and differences within education ethnography are apparent even in the articles present here and in the ways in which they depict, define and describe agency in this special issue.

The Discovery of Common-Sense Psychology

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rainer Reisenzein ◽  
Udo Rudolph
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Common Sense ◽  
Interpersonal Relations ◽  
Causal Attribution ◽  
Hindsight Bias ◽  
50Th Anniversary ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Organizational Contexts ◽  
Current State ◽  
Common Sense Psychology

This special issue of Social Psychology commemorates the 50th anniversary of Fritz Heider’s 1958 book The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. The contributions to the special issue address the history and current state of attribution research, or illustrate contemporary research in the field. The historical articles document that Heider’s analysis of causal attribution and of common-sense psychology was significantly influenced by his academic teachers Alexius Meinong and Ernst Cassirer. We distinguish between the mainstream reception of Heider’s book, which has given rise to an extensive empirical research program, and a minority reception by authors who emphasized aspects of Heider’s thinking not well represented in mainstream psychology. Currently, there are indications of a “back to Heider” movement in social psychology. This new phase of attribution research is inspired by a fresh reading of Heider’s book, and is marked by an interdisciplinary orientation. The articles illustrating current attribution research address both classic and novel topics: the causality implicit in language, the role of causal attribution in hindsight bias, the justification of actions, and the attribution of mistakes in organizational contexts.

scholarly journals Management and Organization Review Special Issue ‘Social Networks ‒ The Dark and Bright Sides of Informal Networks’

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 837-842
Author(s):  
Sven Horak ◽  
Fid Afiouni ◽  
Yanjie Bian ◽  
Alena Ledeneva ◽  
Maral Muratbekova-Touron ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Informal Networks
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