The handbook of economic sociology

 

Authors

Smelser, Neil J.; Swedberg, Richard

Format

Book

Status

publishedVersion

Description

In the first edition of the Handbook, published in 1994, we as editors ventured the judgment that, in the previous 15 years, economic sociology had enjoyed a remarkable renaissance, following on a season of relative quiescence. This led us to believe that the time was ripe for a consolidating publication that told about the past, assessed the present, and looked toward the future. The decade following that volume’s appearance seemed to validate those assessments, if the amount of critical attention given, sizable and sustained sales, and course adoptions are taken as measures. If anything, the book’s fortunes surpassed our expectations. Furthermore, the momentum of economic sociology as an enterprise has accelerated in the meantime. The quality and quantity of research have remained high; new and young talent continues to flow into the field; sociology departments in half a dozen or more leading research universities have established centers of excellence in economic sociology; courses in economic sociology have become standard fare in the curricula of most colleges and universities; and a section on economic sociology has formed and now thrives in the American Sociological Association. All these circumstances have convinced us that a second, fully updated edition of the Handbook is needed, and we are more confident of this judgment than we were the first time around. While the first edition still contains much of value to scholars and students, the knowledge it contains has in some cases been superseded by advances in the meantime. To take these into account—and also to accelerate the development of economic sociology— we had to undertake a wholesale revamping of the first edition. Fully two-thirds of the chapters in this second edition are either new or have authors different from those in the first. Despite this transformation, we found that the general intellectual architecture of the first edition remained a good organizing framework for the second. Thus, part I (chapters 1–6) is a series of general considerations of the field from a variety of different perspectives; part II (chapters 7–21), which we call the economic core, deals with economic systems, economic institutions, and economic behavior behavior. Part III (chapters 22–30) concerns a number of intersections among the economy and various noneconomic sectors of the society. Within this general frame the reader will find the following substantial thematic changes: • Two chapters on international and global concerns (contrasted with the single chapter in the first edition), with international aspects covered in other chapters as well • A chapter on behavioral economics, which continues as a vibrant subfield of economics • A chapter by Pierre Bourdieu on economic anthropology; Bourdieu had agreed to write such a chapter but his untimely death in 2002 prevented this; still wishing to have him represented, we are printing the English translation of “Principes d’une anthropologie économique,” which is published on pp. 233–70 in Les structures sociales de l’économie (Paris: Seuil, 2000) • A chapter on new lines of institutional analysis in economics and sociology • A chapter on the transitions from socialist economies (replacing the earlier chapter on socialist economies themselves) • A chapter on labor markets and trade unions • A chapter on the sociology of work and the professions • A chapter on culture and consumption • A chapter on the sociology of money and credit • A chapter on law and the economy • A chapter on technology and the economy • A chapter on emotions and the economy We regard these changes as reflecting recent shifts in emphasis and active lines of research in economic sociology. We now provide a brief supplement to the table of contents, intended as a guide to readers wishing to delve selectively into the volume according to their specific interests. For those interested in learning about the scope of sociology we recommend chapter 1 (“Introducing Economic Sociology”). The remainder of part I contains chapters on comparative and historical treatments of economy and society in chapter 2 (“Comparative and Historical Approaches to Economic Sociology,” by Frank Dobbin), recent developments in institutional analysis of the economy in chapter 3 (“The New Institutionalisms in Economics and Sociology” by Victor Nee), Pierre Bourdieu’s critical anthropological formulations in chapter 4 (“Principles of an Economic Anthropology”), developments in behavioral economics, which has made its main business the modification of the psychological assumptions of neoclassical economics and tracing the implications of these modifications (chapter 5, “Behavioral Economics,” by Roberto Weber and Robyn Dawes), and an assessment of the scattered literature on the role that emotions play in economic life (chapter 6, “Emotions and the Economy,” by Mabel Berezin). The first section of part II takes a look at sociological aspects of economies at the macroscopic— including the global—level. We introduce the section with the chapter by Ian Morris and J. G. Manning on the economic sociology of the classical civilizations of Egypt, Greece, and Rome (chapter 7, “The Economic Sociology of the Ancient Mediterranean World”). Next comes a general chapter on the international economy (chapter 8, “The Global Economy: Organization Governance, and Development,” by Gary Gereffi), and one on its governance (chapter 9, “The Political and Economic Sociology of International Economic Arrangements,” by Neil Fligstein). Finally, Lawrence King and Iván Szelényi develop a distinctive perspective on the varieties of transition from socialist to post-socialist economies (chapter 10, “Post-Communist Economic Systems”). The second section of part II—“The Sociology of Economic Institutions and Economic Behavior”— reaches to the heart of economic activity itself. The section begins with three chapters on markets, the core economic institutions. Richard Swedberg (chapter 11, “Markets in Society”) treats the subject from a sociological and historical point of view. Wolfgang Streeck (chapter 12, “The Sociology of Labor Markets and Trade Unions”) concentrates on the market for labor services, and Linda Brewster Stearns and Mark Mizruchi (chapter 13, “Banking and Financial Markets”) deal with a range of markets that have only recently commanded significant sociological attention. The sociology of the production side of the economic process is the topic of Andrew Abbott’s contribution (chapter 14, “Sociology of Work and Occupations”). Viviana Zelizer explores the diversity of ways in which cultural factors infuse consumption (chapter 15, “Culture and Consumption”), and Bruce Carruthers synthesizes past and present literature on the social aspects of money and credit (chapter 16, “The Sociology of Money and Credit”). Two additional chapters deal with the less formal aspects of economic life. The important work on networks in the economy is covered in chapter 17 (“Networks and Economic Life,” by Laurel Smith-Doerr and Walter Powell); and the complex and seemingly contradictory nature of the informal economy is analyzed in chapter 18 (“The Informal Economy,” by Alejandro Portes and William Haller). The third secion of part II—“The Sociology of Firms, Organizations, and Industry”—draws mainly from organization theory and general economic sociology. Mark Granovetter updates and reassesses the character of business groups in a comparative context (chapter 19, “Business Groups and Social Organization”). Howard Aldrich examines the nature of entrepreneurial activity and entrepreneurs in chapter 20 (“Entrepreneurship”), and Gerald Davis examines a number of environments of business firms—especially other business firms—in chapter 21 (“Firms and Environments”). Part III—“Intersections of the Economy”— deals with the mutual penetration of economic activity and many “noneconomic” sectors of society. Three chapters address the most important aspects of the economy and the polity. The first is on the state in general (chapter 22, “The State and the Economy,” by Fred Block and Peter Evans). Lauren Edelman and Robin Stryker focus on law as a special aspect of state activity (chapter 23, “A Sociological Approach to Law and the Economy”), while Evelyne Huber and John Stephens assess recent developments in the welfare state and a number of assessments of those developments (chapter 24, “Welfare States and the Economy”). Two additional chapters deal with economic intersections with the institutions of education (chapter 25, “Education and the Economy,” by Mary Brinton) and religion (chapter 26, “New Directions in the Study of Religion and Economic Life,” by Robert Wuthnow). Chapters 27 (“Gender and Economic Sociology,” by Paula England and Nancy Folbre) and 28 (“The Ethnic Economy,” by Ivan Light) deal with the embeddedness of the socially constructed dimensions of gender and ethnicity in economic life. The volume is rounded out by a chapter on technology (chapter 29, “Technology and the Economy,” by Giovanni Dosi, Luigi Orsenigo, and Mauro Sylos Labini), and one on economic- environmental relations (chapter 30, “The Economy and the Environment,” by Allan Schnaiviii berg). Both these final topics have significant international aspects. We conclude with the hope that the stocktaking of economic sociology contained in this Handbook, as well as its attempts to drive the field forward by selecting a few new important areas, will be successful. Economic sociology, we are convinced, currently represents one of the leading edges of sociology, as well as one of its most important interdisciplinary adventures.

Publication Year

2005

Language

eng

Topic

ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
ECONOMY

Repository

Repositorio Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador Sede Ambato

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http://repositorio.pucesa.edu.ec/handle/123456789/1643

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openAccess

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