| In the section | Articles |
| Title of the article | Configuration and Functioning of Social Networks in the Border Region |
| Pages | 67-94 |
| Author 1 | Tatiana Nikolaevna Zhuravskaya Junior Research Fellow Assistant Professor Economic Research Institute FEB RAS; Amur State University 153 Tikhookeanskaya Street, Khabarovsk, Russia, 68004221; Ignatyevskoe Road, Blagoveshchensk, Russia, 675027 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. |
| Abstract | Using the methodology of actor-network analysis the author identifies configuration and dynamics of informal social networks in the border region. The study is based on the example of mechanisms and practices of importing fruits and vegetables from Heihe to Blagoveshchensk and relationships methods in the «Chinese» market in Blagoveshchensk. It is shown that the mechanism of fruit and vegetables’ import to Blagoveshchensk is an informal social network with «Russian» and «Chinese» firms as actors. However, there are other actors involving in goods’ exchange and money flows: «Tajik», «Uzbek», «Azerbaijan» and «Armenian» companies. The analysis is performed for two periods of legislative regulation of foreign trade, each of which differs in the nature of links, number of actors and their positions. The study reveals the fact that social networks of import belong to networks of a higher order and they provide not only the city with fruit and vegetables, but also other regions (in particular, Yakutia). The paper shows that «Chinese» firms control flows of goods and money so they occupy the central position within identified social networks. These networks and control mechanisms keep up the stability of informal trade of migrants and failures of formal regulation. |
| Code | 339.562.4:316.334.2 |
| DOI | 10.14530/se.2014.3.67-94 |
| Keywords | ♦ social networks ♦ actor-network analysis ♦ informal economy ♦ «Chinese» market ♦ import of fruit and vegetables ♦ Blagoveshchensk ♦ Heihe |
| Download | SE.2014.3.067-094.Zhuravskaya.pdf |
| For citation | Zhuravskaya T.N. Configuration and Functioning of Social Networks in the Border Region. Prostranstvennaya Ekonomika = Spatial Economics, 2014, no. 3, pp. 67-94. DOI: 10.14530/se.2014.3.67-94. (In Russian). |
| References | 1. Barsukova S.Yu. Enforceable Trust in the World of Social Networks. Politicheskie Issledovaniya – Political Studies, 2001, no. 2, pp. 52–60. Available at: (accessed 10 May 2014). (In Russian). 2. Bezrukova O.N. Network as a Condition of the Economic Action. Ekonomicheskaya Sotsiologiya – Economic Sociology, 2004, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 78–93. Available at: http://ecsoc.hse.ru/2004-5-3/26595347.html (accessed 28 April 2014). (In Russian). 3. Brednikova O., Pachenkov O. Ethnicity of the «Ethnical Economics» and Social Networks of Migrants. Ekonomicheskaya Sotsiologiya – Economic Sociology, 2002, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 74–81. Available at: (accessed 11 June 2014). (In Russian). 4. Bourdieu P. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Ekonomi-cheskaya Sotsiologiya – Economic Sociology, 2005, vol. 6, no. 3. Available at: (accessed 17 May 2014). (In Russian). 5. Gradoselskaya G.V. Social Networking: Exchange of Private Transfers. Sotsiologi-cheskiy Zhurnal [Sociological Journal], 1999, no. 1/2, pp. 156–163. Available at: http://www.nir.ru/sj/sj/sj99-grado.html (accessed 15 July 2014). (In Russian). 6. Gradoselskaya G.V. Network Measurement in Sociology: Textbook. Moscow, 2004, 248 p. Available at: http://ecsocman.hse.ru/text/19188138 (accessed 21 June 2014). (In Russian). 7. Granovetter M. Economic Action and Social Structure: the Problem of Embed-dedness. Ekonomicheskaya Sotsiologiya – Economic Sociology, 2002, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 44–58. Available at: http: //ecsoc.hse.ru/data/2011/12/08/1208205035/ecsoc_t3_n3.pdf (accessed 23 May 2014). (In Russian). 8. De Soto H. The Other Path. The Invisible Revolution in the Third World. Translated from English by B. Pinsker. Moscow, 1995, 320 p. Available at: (accessed 11 July 2014). (In Russian). 9. Zhuravskaya T.N. «Chinese» Shopping Center vs. «Chinese» Market: What Changed аfter Ban on Foreign Traders in Retail Markets in Case of the Amur Region. Politiya [Polity], 2012, no. 4, pp. 104–123. Available at: politeia.ru/content/pdf /Politeia_Zhuravskaya-2012-4.pdf (accessed 30 June 2014). (In Russian). 10. Kvale S. Research Interview. Moscow, 2003, 301 p. Available at: http://socioline.ru/pages/s-kvale-issledovatelskoe-intervyu (accessed 15 May 2014). (In Russian). 11. Koulman J. The Social Capital and Human. Obshchestvennye Nauki i Sovremennost [Social Sciences and Modernity], 2001, no. 3, pp. 121–139. Available at: (accessed 20 June 2014). (In Russian). 12. Kuzminov Ya.I., Bendukidze K.A., Yudkevich M.M. The Rate of Institutional Economics: Institutions, Networks, Transaction Costs, Contracts: A Textbook for University Students. Moscow: State University – Higher School of Economics, 2006, 442 p. Available at: http://ecsocman.hse.ru/text/19188316 (accessed 10 August 2014). (In Russian). 13. Ledenyova A.V. Blat and the Market: the Transformation of Blat in Post-Soviet Society. The Informal Economy. Russia and the World. Edited by T. Shanin. Moscow, 1999, pp. 111–124. (In Russian). 14. Oleynik A.N. Institutional Economics: А Training Manual. Moscow, 2002, 416 p. Available at: http://www.alleng.ru/d/econ/econ280.htm (accessed 13 June 2014). (In Russian). 15. Oleynik A.N. The Model of Network Capitalism. Voprosy Ekonomiki [Economic Issue], 2003, no. 8, pp. 132–149. Available at: (accessed 17 July 2014). (In Russian). 16. Polterovich V.M Institutional Traps and Ways оut. Obshchestvennye Nauki i Sovremennost [Social Sciences and Modernity], 2004, no. 3, pp. 5–16. Available at: (accessed 11 June 2014). (In Russian). 17. Portes A. The Informal Economy and its Paradoxes. Ekonomicheskaya Sotsiologiya – Economic Sociology, 2003, vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 34–53. Available at: #page=34 (accessed 26 May 2014). (In Russian). 18. Radaev V.V. Economic Sociology: Textbook for Universities. Moscow: State University – Higher School of Economics, 2005, 603 p. Available at: http://socioline.ru/book/radaev-vv-ekonomicheskaya-sociologiya (accessed 19 June 2014). (In Russian). 19. Ryzhova N.P. Cross-Border «People Trade» in Blagoveshchensk as a Form of Chinese-Russian Symbiosis. Diaspory [Diasporas], 2003, no. 2, pp. 88–126. (In Russian). 20. Ryzhova N.P. Economic Integration of Border Regions. Edited by P.A. Minakir. Khabarovsk: Economic Research Institute FEB RAS, 2013, 348 p. (In Russian). 21. Stark D. Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism. Voprosy Ekonomiki [Economic Issue], 1996, no. 6, pp. 4–24. (In Russian). 22. Fadeeva O. Inter-Family Networks: Mechanisms of Mutual Support in the Russian Village. The Informal Economy. Russia and the World. Edited by T. Shanin. Moscow, 1999, pp. 183–218. (In Russian). 23. Hill P. Markets as Places of Trade. Economic Theory. Edited by J. Eatwell, M. Milgate, P. Newman; Scientific Edition by V.S. Avtonomov. Moscow, 2004, pp. 517–524. (In Russian). 24. Steinberg I. Russian Miracle: Local and Family Networks of Mutual Support and Their Transformation. The Informal Economy. Russia and the World. Edited by T. Shanin. Moscow, 1999, pp. 227–239. (In Russian). 25. Burt R. Models of Network Structure. Annual Review of Sociology, 1980, vol. 6, pр. 79–141. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.so.06.080180.000455 26. Hanneman R.A., Riddle M. Introduction to Social Network Methods. Riverside, CA: University of California, Riverside, 2005. Available at: http://faculty.ucr.edu/~hanneman (accessed 14 July 2014). 27. Jones C., Hesterly W.S., Borgatti S.P. A General Theory of Network Governance: Exchange Conditions and the Social Mechanisms. Academy of Management Review, 1997, vol. 22, no. 4, pр. 911–945. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/259249?uid=3738936&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21104542362167 (accessed 22 June 2014). 28. Reeve A. Property. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press International, 1986, 204 p. |
| Financing | |
| Date |