Trajectory Types Across Network Positions: Jazz Evolution from 1930 to 1969

Abstract

Extant literature on organizational fields has relied widely on social network analysis to understand how individual actors are related to each other and located at relational positions. In tandem, social network analysis has also been deployed to explore individual trajectories. In this chapter the author articulates both approaches, while exploring how changes in the jazz field impact individuals’ trajectories. The author built ideal-typical trajectories by extracting social network statistics on musicians’ paths and used blockmodeling to map field development vis-à-vis the positioning of trajectory types and the evolution of styles. To that end research was carried out on the jazz field and its musicians for the period 1930–1969, using relational data collected from the credits of 5572 albums of jazz recordings. Within this period, the field migrated from a normative to a competitive structure, a shift that provides insight into how trajectory types’ patterns of interaction change. Results indicate that cooptation of established generations by new ones was crucial and occurred when the field experienced strong centrifugal forces.