Theories of Self-Interest and Collective Action

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Many social theories are based on generative mechanisms that are directly relevant to the emergence and coevolution of human networks. Ironically, as Monge and Contractor (2001) demonstrate, many published network studies fail to acknowledge or explicitly identify the social theories and generative mechanisms that motivate their research. In much of the rest of this book we examine a number of social theories in order to identify their generative mechanisms. These mechanisms can be used in conjunction with others to populate the multitheoretical, multilevel framework for the realization of communication and other networks described in chapter 2. For example, the theory of social capital suggests that people who try to exploit social holes will do so by seeking to improve their structural autonomy. On the other hand, theories of social exchange suggest that individuals and organizations forge ties by exchanging material or information resources. Of course, it is quite possible that people do both at the same time, thus requiring a multitheoretical framework. If this were the case, we would develop multitheoretical hypotheses. These would predict that statistical p* analysis of observed networks would reveal significant components for structural autonomy, mutuality, and reciprocation. Further, we would expect that other possible network components, such as transitivity and cyclicality, which are generative mechanisms in other theories, would not be statistically significant in the realization of this particular observed network. In this chapter we examine theories of self-interest and theories of mutual interest, the latter sometimes called theories of collective action, in order to identify their theoretical mechanisms. The self-interest theories are the theory of social capital, specifically Burt’s theory of structural holes, and transaction cost economics. The theory of collective interest that we examine is public goods theory. Social theorists have long been fascinated by self-interest as a motivation for economic and other forms of social action (Coleman, 1986). Theories of self-interest postulate that people make what they believe to be rational choices in order to acquire personal benefits. The strong form of this theoretical mechanism, originally postulated by Adam Smith, is “rationality.” It stipulates that people attempt to maximize their gains, or equivalently, minimize their losses.