Relational Work in Economic Sociology: A Review and Extension

Understanding how economic transactions are constitutive in the development, maintenance, and solidification of relationships has been of particular importance for economic sociologists in recent years. Following the work of Viviana Zelizer, economic sociologists have expanded from a purely network‐based approach of analyzing economic action to consider how and in what ways relations shape economic life. This paper provides a review of Zelizer's relational view of economic activity and presents an extension to the theory. While scholars have successfully applied “relational work” to many areas of economic life, this paper asks whether one can use the theory to examine economic interactions between human and non‐human agents. The example of tithing in the Prosperity Gospel tradition is used in order to expand relational work to this realm.