THE EMBEDDED ACTOR AND THE INVENTION OF NATURAL ECONOMIC-LAW - POLICYCHANGE AND RAILROADER RESPONSE IN EARLY AMERICA

Economic sociologists stress that economic actors are embedded in a so ciohistorical context that shapes and constrains activity. Neoinstitut ionalists build on this idea and argue that economic actors are embedd ed in two key ways. First, they are embedded in the rationalized world view described by Weber in which every end has an optimal means. Secon d, economic actors are embedded in a local context in which they colle ctively search for optimal strategies. Whereas local contexts and stra tegies vary greatly, neoinstitutionalists find great regularity in the script by which economic actors converge in strategies. The present a rticle expounds on this ''double embeddedness'' by way of a single his torical case: the construction of strategy by early American railroade rs.