Social Capital, Double Embeddedness, and Mechanisms of Stability and Change

Abstract

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.