Testing Simmel’s Theory on Group Persistence: Elite Networks and Institutional Development in the Medieval Hansa, 1356-1516

• In Event: 382 - Theory Section Paper Session. Directions in Relational Sociology: Theory, Method and Practice

Abstract

Economic institutions have “social relational foundations” (Hillmann 2013:253). Particularly the literature on private-order institutions underlines the importance of social relationships for economic development. In this paper I add to the literature on network mechanisms in private-order institutions. While network closure works at the local interpersonal level of ties, group persistence is important at the supra-local level when persons meet only occasionally. Building on Simmel’s (1898) early insights on group persistence, it is argued that private order-institutions may persist beyond the local communities across large distances and time if the reproduction of the group via overlaps of participants is high. I test these and other hypotheses derived from Simmel’s classical work in sociology on group persistence.
The Hansa (or Hanseatic League) serves as an empirical case to study the development of private-order institutions on the supra-local and local level. The Hansa was one of the most successful institutions in European history and organized long-distance trade in Northern Europe centuries before the Dutch and British. I focus on the governance of the organization via meetings among town delegates starting after the Black Death until the eve of the Reformation, thus observing elite interactions in the closing of the Late Middle Ages. A dataset on Hansa event attendance spanning a period from 1356 to 1516 allows the study of group persistence in this famous case of European economic history. Simmel’s theoretical concept of group persistence is measured via similarity measures of event attendance lists.

Author

• Bernd Wurpts, University of Washington