Power and network exchange: an essay toward theoretical unification

We locate network exchange research on power development in the broad historical perspective given by neoclassical economic theory and the structuralist tradition in network analysis. We then compare the particular explanatory approaches represented by papers in this volume, noting convergences and divergences both at the conceptual, theoretical level and at the level of specific predictions for particular networks and in comparison with available observations. Our review suggests that the theoretical unification of the various approaches will require going beyond the current ‘comparative statics’ analyses to a fully formal, dynamic process conceptual- ization of power development in exchange networks. We offer some preliminary ideas in this direction based on the Coleman's recent work in which the problem is framed as one of actors exchanging control over resources in which each has interests.