element

Elements are carriers of >knowledge in economic systems and the basic constituent of >networks. As such, they can have various forms and shapes, like firms, innovation systems, groups and entrepreneurs. On a more abstract level, the bimodal counterpart of elements in networks are the >actors, single or a many. With the concept of element, thus, EE grasps the Hayekian idea of distributed knowledge in the >market.

EE follows a non-reductionist approach in rejecting the assumption of the identity between actor and element common to traditional economics. In the Hayekian perspective, elements as market structures carry distributed knowledge, which however rests in the individual actors and which is communicated via the price system. EE adopts a more radical view, insofar as knowledge can be embodied in networks, technologies, institutions and other structures. An important example in EE is the knowledge that is carried in the firm as an >organization. The firm structures the actions of its members via referential and non-referential knowledge, the latter commonly referred to as "routines". Hence, routines are elements in the network of actors that constitutes the firm organization.

Elements are the unit of >evolution. To analyze their change, the >VSR-mechanism is the most important tool. Here, elements are the replicators that determine the performance of actors as interactors. To understand the evolution of the economic system, it is important to analyze this relation between observed behavior and performance and the underlying structures of knowledge that are being reproduced in time.

Basic References
The concept of element is closely related to non-reductionist treatments of institutions and other social phenomena by other EE scholars, for example:
Geoffrey M Hodgson, Evolution and Institutions. On Evolutionary Economics and the Evolution of Economics, Cheltenham: Elgar, 1999.

The issue of reductionism is one of the most fundamental of science, see
On reductionism

Semantic Field
knowledge
network   actor   element   structure