TY - BOOK ID - 657436 TI - Social networks, political institutions, and rural societies : Conference, Münster, University of Münster, 2007 AU - Fertig, Georg AU - European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research AU - Brepols PY - 2015 VL - 11 SN - 9782503548043 2503548040 PB - Turnhout Brepols DB - UniCat KW - History of Europe KW - anno 1500-1799 KW - anno 1800-1899 KW - Social networks KW - Sociology, Rural KW - Réseaux sociaux KW - Sociologie rurale KW - History KW - Economic aspects KW - Political aspects KW - Histoire KW - Aspect économique KW - Aspect politique KW - Europe KW - Rural conditions KW - Conditions rurales KW - Réseaux sociaux KW - Aspect économique KW - Congresses KW - Congresses and conventions KW - Sociology [Rural ] UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:657436 AB - This book is a collection of essays on social networks, social capital, and kinship in historical and contemporary rural societies. They span a wide range of European countries and historical situations, from early modern Flanders and Italy to present-day Austria and Armenia. All the essays describe in detail how people on the countryside connected with one another in formal or informal relations. In doing so, the authors use and critically discuss methods of historical interpretation, social network analysis, and econometrics. The book analyses these topics in three steps. First, the authors address whether social relations can be of economic use. Secondly, they examine the institutional conditions for such a conversion of social into economic capital, reconstructing the often unexpected ways in which the economic and social spheres were connected both in ‘ pre-modern’ and in ‘ modern’ settings. Thirdly, they show how political institutions were constructed out of social networks. ER -