Social Exchange in Networks and Groups

History and Background

The exchange perspective on networks and groups has origins in several disciplines, including psychology, sociology, anthropology, and economics. There were two major influences from the field of psychology. First is the work by John Thibaut and Harold Kelley, The Social Psychology of Groups, which was extremely influential in the early works on exchange in sociology. In addition, the work of B. F. Skinner had a strong influence on the work of George Homans and subsequently of Linda Molm. In cultural anthropology, the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss, Bronislaw Malinowski, and Marcel Mauss were especially influential.

Three of the earliest theorists writing about social exchange in networks and groups were George Homans, Peter Blau, and Richard M. Emerson. They set the groundwork for most of the subsequent research on exchange in networks and groups. Each of these theorists had significant influence on the development of this field of study.

Homans's primary focus was the social behavior that emerged as a result of mutual reinforcement of two parties involved in a dyadic exchange. He was greatly influenced by the work of Skinner and borrowed Skinner's ideas on reinforcement as a mechanism for change within networks. Homans's theoretical consideration of distributive justice, power, status, authority, leadership, and solidarity is based on an analysis of direct exchange between individuals in groups.

Blau focused on the links between microsocial behavior and the groups, organizations, and institutions in which individual relations are embedded. Blau was interested primarily in the reciprocal exchange of benefits and the types of relationships and social structures that emerge from this kind of social interaction.

For Emerson, the relationship between power and social structure was the central theoretical problem in social exchange in groups and networks. Two of Emerson's distinct contributions are his fundamental insight into the relational nature of power and his extension of powerdependence theory to analyze the social networks created by exchange relations. Subsequent work by Karen Cook, Barry Markovsky, David Willer, John Skvoretz, Edward Lawler, Linda Molm, Phillip Bonacich, Noah Friedkin, and others built on these developments.

Types of Exchange

The principles of social exchange in groups and networks can be applied to most human interactions, but individuals do not interact with all other individuals the same ways, nor is it acceptable to engage in certain types of interaction to procure certain resources (i.e., one is unlikely to negotiate birthday gifts). Several possible types of interaction within groups and networks have been specified. The broadest distinction between types of exchange is between direct and indirect exchanges. Direct exchange is a relationship in which each actor's outcome is directly dependent on another actor's behavior. Indirect exchange is an exchange relationship in which each actor's outcome is dependent, not on the person he or she gave to, but rather on either a collective entity or another member of the network.

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