Talking About Organizations Podcast
Jul 7, 2026 · 4 min · 4 segments
Coming soon! We will examine a contemporary stream in economic sociology, the relational work perspective, championed by Viviana Zelizer and furthered by some of her students such as Nina Bandelj and…
From Zelizer's article, we find the terms relational work and relational economic sociology encompassing the study of linkages between economic transactions on the one hand with social relationships and medias of exchange on the other.
These apply in cases where the parties to a transaction have an abiding relationship of some sort with each other.
The results are economic transactions that differ in character from what a purely economic view would predict.
For example, a family managing a budget is likely to make decisions about major purchases to the needs of the family members very differently than how a business may view similar investments.
The breadwinner of the family may divide the budget, so-called earmarking different allocations of money, based not on utility of the good or service purchased, but on maintaining harmony within the family.
If one child receives too much benefit, there may be arguments among other siblings about unfairness.
Bandoli's 2020 article contrasts relational work from the embeddedness perspective, which we covered in episode 127 on the works of Granovetter.
Within the relational perspective, economic actors make distinctions about classes of money that determine social and cognitive ways that money is utilized.
Sometimes, the exchange may be disreputable or morally objectionable, such as for the purchases of vices or illegal goods, in which cases the exchange may occur in a hidden, say obfuscated, fashion, such as bundled with other legitimate purchases or brokered through third parties.
Emotions are also important as some actors try to influence the mind of the other party to make or not make a purchase.
Real estate agents or used car salespersons attempt the hard sell, invoking the client or customer's emotional responses to convince them that they want to buy that house or car, even when it's not in their best interest to do so.
From Zelizer's article, we find the terms relational work and relational economic sociology encompassing the study of linkages between economic transactions on the one hand with social relationships and medias of exchange on the other.
These apply in cases where the parties to a transaction have an abiding relationship of some sort with each other.
The results are economic transactions that differ in character from what a purely economic view would predict.
For example, a family managing a budget is likely to make decisions about major purchases to the needs of the family members very differently than how a business may view similar investments.
The breadwinner of the family may divide the budget, so-called earmarking different allocations of money, based not on utility of the good or service purchased, but on maintaining harmony within the family.
If one child receives too much benefit, there may be arguments among other siblings about unfairness.
Bandoli's 2020 article contrasts relational work from the embeddedness perspective, which we covered in episode 127 on the works of Granovetter.
Within the relational perspective, economic actors make distinctions about classes of money that determine social and cognitive ways that money is utilized.
Sometimes, the exchange may be disreputable or morally objectionable, such as for the purchases of vices or illegal goods, in which cases the exchange may occur in a hidden, say obfuscated, fashion, such as bundled with other legitimate purchases or brokered through third parties.
Emotions are also important as some actors try to influence the mind of the other party to make or not make a purchase.
Real estate agents or used car salespersons attempt the hard sell, invoking the client or customer's emotional responses to convince them that they want to buy that house or car, even when it's not in their best interest to do so.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.