ABSTRACT
The concept of a network has increasingly been applied in efforts to understand recent changes in society at large (Castells 1996, 2000), business enterprises (Podolny and Page 1998; DiMaggio 2001), and markets (Podolny 2001; White 2001). The research concerning networks has been very impressive and its results most interesting, nevertheless, some limitations remain. Importantly, most of network research has, as in the tradition of social network theory, focused on structural aspects of networks leaving the cultural aspects of networks inadequately analysed. As pointed out by Emirbayer and Goodwin, network analysis ‘has inadequately theorized the causal role of ideals, beliefs, and values of the actors that strive to realize them, as a result it has neglected the cultural and symbolic moment in the very determination of social action’ (Emirbayer and Goodwin 1994, p. 1446).
