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143© The Author(s) 2017 J. Glückler et al. (eds.), Knowledge and Networks, Knowledge and Space 11, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45023-0_8 Chapter 8 Trajectory Types Across Network Positions: Jazz Evolution from 1930 to 1969 Charles Kirschbaum The study of organizational fields has been prevalent throughout organizational studies, strategic management, economic sociology and economic geography. The field construct has emerged as a powerful analytical concept that affords a holistic view of a social system. In this chapter, I espouse the idea that a field is a social space that encloses the main aspects of certain actors’ institutional lives, and where the field’s actors interact with each other in a more intensive way compared to their interactions with outside actors (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). Specifically, the jazz field includes musicians, critics, schools, magazines, and so on. Its formal and infor- mal institutions include, inter alia, how music is constructed and interpreted, as well as the main practices in recruiting musicians for recording sessions. Its interactions include, inter alia, relational events such as playing together in jam sessions or in studios. Throughout this chapter, my concern is to contribute to the literature of field dynamics. In particular, I explore the transition from a normative to a competitive configuration (Anand & Peterson, 2000). In a normative field, social action is usu- ally driven by rule-following, with these norms being enacted by central and domi- nant players. In competitive fields, by contrast, central actors dominate other actors, too, but norm-following does not rely on rule enforcement. Softer power, such as influence, becomes much more prevalent in competitive fields. To be sure, both these field ideal types evoke the core-and-periphery framework, as though such a structure could be taken for granted. However, a closer inspection of the concrete historical process that leads from one ideal type to another can shed light on whether such a structure remains the same and indicate the extent to which topological changes during the process constitute main events and turning points. This examination may reveal that a core-periphery structure looks very similar in C. Kirschbaum (*) Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa, Rua Quatá 300, Vila Olímpia 04546042, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: charlesk1@insper.edu.br