Beyond la Métaphore : Strategic Network Formation as an Analytical Tool for Late Medieval Economic History
This paper invites a reconsideration of how network analysis is used in the study of premodern economic life. Although the concept of the network has gained prominence in medieval and early modern economic history, its application often remains descriptive, metaphorical, or methodologically inconsis...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cem, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Sprache: | Anglais |
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Bulletin du centre d’études médiévales d’Auxerre | BUCEMA
2026
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| Online Zugang: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Zusammenfassung: | This paper invites a reconsideration of how network analysis is used in the study of premodern economic life. Although the concept of the network has gained prominence in medieval and early modern economic history, its application often remains descriptive, metaphorical, or methodologically inconsistent. This is particularly evident in analyses of market structure, where relational language frequently substitutes for formal modelling of incentives, costs, and strategic behaviour. The paper proposes a reconceptualisation grounded in strategic network formation, informed by game-theoretic and microeconomic reasoning. It argues that, in contexts such as late-medieval commerce – where relationships were shaped by explicit constraints, heterogeneous benefits, asymmetric information, and institutional complexity – models that explicitly encode strategic decision-making provide a more coherent representation of the generative processes documented in the sources. The contribution is therefore theoretical and methodological : it clarifies the conditions under which network models can be considered compatible with historical evidence and explains why strategic frameworks offer a more consistent tool for analysing market formation and coordination in the premodern world. |
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