Abstract

Harrison White's Notes on the Constituents of Social Structure is one of those rare texts which can influence generations of scholars without ever being published. This introduction aims to provide some information and suggestions (sometimes provocative) which could be useful to frame this text in its content and context. In particular, the paper explores the intellectual origins of the idea of catnet within the history of network analysis research and Harrison White's biography, and argues for its relevance as an early admission by White of the impossibility of a pure structural, culture-free sociology - that is independent from the contextual study of cultural meanings and cognitive frames.