An interview with Vincent Buskens (25/7/01)

Vincent Buskens is research fellow at the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (Utrecht University). He is investigating what the effect of social networks is on cooperation in durable relations by means of some mathematical models, some of which were presented at the Summer School.

[Q] Social networks and trust have been the topics of your presentation at the Summer School. These are usually considered typical sociological questions, but you have treated it very formally, as an economist would do.

[VB] The question about how social networks affect the behavior in principle come from sociology but is increasingly being taken seriously in economics. In my work in fact I try to use economic methodology to extend economic theories to this sort of sociological questions, so, on the one hand, to elaborate on these theories, and on the other hand to find new and more formal answers to those questions. There is really an open boundary between these two areas.

[Q] How are trust and social networks related to P&C?

[VB] In my opinion, trust and conflict are very much related, because if trust is high conflict can be prevented, while if it is low, there is a higher probability that conflict appears. On the other hand, polarization questions are related to social networks, for it shapes them: if people are different, they are simply less connected in social networks.

[Q] Any comment about the Summer School?

[VB] Most of the talks I have heard, I've liked them very much, but what I mostly like about the summer school is that exchange of ideas between economists, sociologists and political scientists. I really think that their different ideas complement a lot: economists have more formal approaches, while political scientists and sociologists have a more substantive knowledge about political problems. So the interaction is really interesting.

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