Suchergebnisse

The authors coin the term double embeddedness to denote the two-sided nature of communities, markets, and organizations—where social, political, and economic actions are embedded in social structure and culture. Structural embeddedness and cultural embeddedness and their interactions are variable, dynamic, and complex. The authors develop a typology based on these two forms of embeddedness, illustrating four ideal-types with examples from the United States and Europe. Two paths of stability and change in the United States are analyzed. The first is the observed decline of social capital coupled with the observed stability of shared values. The second is the hypothesized geographical polarization of values and networks, such as red versus blue states. Applying Coleman's macro—micro—macro model, it is shown that these two paths are the first and second cycles of a two-cycle model of social change. Also analyzed are some of the social mechanisms (situational, action formation, and transformational) that underlie this two-cycle model.

Résumé Le statut d'observateur participant dans un monde de l'art que l'on souhaite étudier constitue à la fois une aide et une limite pour le chercheur. Parce qu'il comprend ce dont parlent les observés quand ils évoquent leur travail, il peut découvrir des choses qu'un étranger mettrait des mois à apprendre. Dans notre travail de terrain sur les musiciens du jazz aux États-Unis, nous avons découvert des situations problématiques propres aux chercheurs qui sont membres d'un monde de l'art sur lequel ils mènent une enquête : l'exploration mutuelle, l'explicitation de savoirs implicites. Le chercheur peut poser les questions de telle sorte que les enquêtés comprennent facilement ce qu'il demande. Il peut ainsi identifier ce qui n'est guère compréhensible (et qui le deviendra, quand il approfondit les points cruciaux de son enquête). Enfin il participe lui-même aux activités qu'il désire observer et sur lesquelles il aimerait écrire.

Criminologists have studied the spread of fraudulent practices and techniques among perpetrators. This article attempts to contribute to the field by looking at the other side of diffusion, examining the spread of fraud among investors in a case of "intermediate fraud." Intermediate fraud occurs when fraudulent acts are committed in or by a legitimate business. Using comprehensive archival, interview, and survey data, we analyze a business that exhibited a two‐stage pattern of intermediate fraud: It was created and operated as a legitimate business in the first stage, and then economic crimes were increasingly committed in the second stage. We use diffusion theory to guide our analysis, investigating the ways in which five factors—product attributes, buyer attributes and behavior, seller attributes and behavior, structure of the social network, and method of propagation—influence the adoption and diffusion of investments in oil and gas wells among a population of investors. The case of intermediate fraud is interesting because the factors that contributed to the success of the business in its legitimate stage are the same factors that contributed to the success of the fraud in its illegitimate stage.