This chapter lays the theoretical groundwork for the project. Here I describe the basic concepts, assumptions, and principles of social exchange theory and its conception of power. My discussion is based primarily on the contributions of Richard Emerson (1962, 1972a, 1972b), whose theory of power-dependence relations provides the framework for this work. I also draw on the insights of Thibaut and Kelley (1959), whose early treatment of power-dependence relations strongly influenced Emerson's subsequent work; of Homans ([1961] 1974), who is considered by many to be the founding father of sociological exchange theory; and of Blau (1964), whose conception of social exchange as nonnegotiated – the terms and timing of which are left unspecified – corresponds most closely to my own.

My discussion in this chapter is limited to reward-based exchange, the traditional focus of social exchange theories. In the next chapter I evaluate this restriction and discuss the consequences of removing it for the assumptions and principles introduced here.

The concept of social exchange

The conception of social interaction as social exchange comes, of course, from the example of economic exchange. As anthropologists recognized as early as the 1920s (Malinowski 1922; Mauss 1925), many forms of social interaction outside of the economic marketplace can be conceptualized as an exchange of benefits. “Neighbors exchange favors; children, toys; colleagues, assistance; acquaintances, courtesies; politicians, concessions” (Blau 1964:88).