Authors: Carlos Brito; Luis Araujo
A network view of agency rejects the atomised individual actor as the unit of analysis and instead views individuals and organisations as constituted in spatial and temporally bounded relational contexts. An actor’s position in a network is a location made up of intersecting networks, comprising multiple forms of exchange (e.g. economic, social, political). Agency is thus regarded as the capacity of actors to reproduce or transform the conditions of actions afforded by their structural location in a series of intersecting networks, in accordance with their individual or collective ideals, interests and commitments.Sabel (1993) and Herrigel (1994) introduce the notions of constitutional orders to refer to the background systems of social and political rules within an industrial sector, which establish frameworks for engaging in specific practices, adjudicating disputes and defining identities of constituent firms and the system in relation to the wider society. Whereas Sabel and Herrigel have applied this concept to industrial sectors, this paper extends and refines the concept in relation to an interorganisational network comprising multiple layers of exchange involving economic, social and political strands. More importantly, we introduce the notion of agency in tandem with constitutional orders, to explain the evolution of an interorganisational network and describe its interplay in the context of an issue affecting the whole network. In particular we are concerned with the way actors attempt to enrol and mobilise others in collective actions aimed at reshaping constitutional orderings in a manner that advances or protects their interests. This paper presents a detailed study focusing on the interaction between agency and constitutional ordering in the Port Wine sector in Portugal in the case of an issue concerning excess stocks. We describe the processes involved in the framing of this issue as collective, network problem and the processes through which different groups of actors attempted to resolve this issue in ways that advanced or protected their structural position within the network.
Journal: International Studies of Management & Organization (27 (4) – 22-46)
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Publish Year: 1998
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