ABSTRACT
The analysis of ‘the shift from embeddedness to nestedness is of historical and economic importance for, as it offers a reading of contemporary society in terms of regulation and institutionalisation of rules, logics and interdependent flows concerning economic and financial issues. By ‘nestedness’ is meant a complex intertwining of institutions at all levels of the world, from the global arena to the regional level, also including the nation-state and such continental entities as NAFTA and the European Union. Cross-tabulating four types of institutional arrangements (markets, networks, associations and state) and five levels of coordination (local district, regions, nations, continental zones and world) yields an elabourate combination of arrangements, instead of a ‘simplistic vision of omniscient market mechanisms’. The difficulties lie in the need of exerting a control over the various levels of arrangements and of coordinating between them.
