How much are we connected? On David Knoke's Economic Networks (POlITy Press, 2012)

Abstract

In each and every scientific field, when a new approach rears its head, the related experts try to find its place in their own scientific system. However, with network science one question emerges again and again: Is network science a simple approach, or can we talk about a new paradigm shift? Reading David Knoke’s book about economic networks – an excellent summary of preexisting research about economics from a network science approach – makes the reader feel that they “are networked in every sense”; not only concerning the economy, but – literally speaking – in every sphere and dimension of life. However, this statement today seems universal and accepted; the nature of the ‘new paradigm’ is the subject of on-going debate. This book does not answer this question – nor was this its purpose –; however, I think it definitely does reject  the claim that “Network theory has been imported into economics as a tool…”^[1]

[1] Arrow, Kenneth J. 2009. “Some Development in Economic Theory Since 1940: An Eyewitness Account” Annual Review of Economics 1:1-16