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ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY
Sociology 920:375: Scott Hall, room 121; MW 2:50-4:
Department of Sociology Rutgers University Spring 2008
Professor: Paul McLean E-mail: pmclean@rci.rutgers.edu Office hours: Thursdays 12:00-2:00, Lucy Stone Hall, A336 (Livingston), and by appointment (especially on CAC) Phone: 732-445- Website : http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~pmclean/
A basic feature of any society is that it produces and/or distributes goods and services necessary for survival. Yet this production and distribution is not only economic in character, but also profoundly social, in that production and distribution originate in a social context, are guided by and in turn affect social structures, involve organized institutional and symbolic practices, and have a variety of important social outcomes. Economic life is also moral, in the Durkheimian sense that economic activity binds a society together, and in the sense common among policy makers that markets have various important positive (e.g., civilizing) and/or negative (e.g., disintegrative) effects. Economic sociology purports to study the various connections between economic action and social and moral life. It remains one of the fastest growing fields in sociology today, encompassing a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and empirical foci. This course is designed as an overview of some of the different perspectives and key arguments comprising the field, including both classical texts and contemporary books and articles. By taking this course, you will become familiar with an important subdiscipline in sociology, you will learn some of its methods, and I hope you will learn to view economic activity in an entirely new light.
A couple of texts are available for purchase at the Rutgers Bookstore on Albany Street in New Brunswick (don’t buy everything there—just these two!). These are:
- Mark Granovetter and Richard Swedberg, eds., The Sociology of Economic Life , 2 nd edition (Westview Press, 2001)
- Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation (Beacon Press)
In addition there will be a number of journal articles and other materials to read. These will be available on the course’s sakai website. I would like, insofar as it is possible, for you to do the reading BEFORE you come to class. It will make it more possible for us to discuss the material in class, rather than you having to listen to me (or your classmates) simply lecture about it. Reading ahead will also enhance the operation of the in-class presentations; more on them below.
Requirements and Evaluation
Your grade in this course will be based on the following factors:
- attendance and participation in class, including presentations (20%);
- one midterm test in class (20%);
- one short paper, about 5-6 pages in length (30%);
- a final exam (30%).
Attendance may be taken regularly, although not at every session. The midterm and final will consist of multiple choice questions, short answers (either concept or quotation identification), and one or two bluebook essays. The final exam in particular will cover mostly material from the post-midterm portion of the semester, including only limited attention to materials from the first third of the course. I will hand out paper topics midway through the semester, although you may write on a topic of your own choosing if you wish and you clear it with me. Your grade will also depend on your compliance with some basic guidelines of classroom conduct, as follows:
The Department of Sociology encourages the free exchange of ideas in a safe, supportive, and productive classroom environment. To facilitate such an environment, students and faculty must act with mutual respect and common courtesy. Thus, behavior that distracts students and faculty is not acceptable. Such behavior includes cell phone use, surfing the internet, checking email, text messaging, listening to music, reading newspapers, leaving and returning, leaving early without permission, and discourteous remarks. Courteous and lawful expression of disagreement with the ideas of the instructor or fellow students is of course permitted. If a student engages in disruptive behavior, then your instructor, in compliance with the University Code of Student Conduct, is entitled to direct that student to leave class for the remainder of the class period. Serious verbal assaults, harassment, or defamation of the instructor or other students can lead to university disciplinary proceedings. The University Code of Student Conduct may be consulted at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~polcomp/judaff/ucsc.shtml.
As part of your participation grade, you will be required to make a brief presentation of the readings of the day on TWO SEPARATE DAYS during the semester. A sign-up sheet will be circulated in week two. These presentations will take the following form: 1) prepare a three- or four-sentence paragraph summarizing the main point(s) of the reading, to be read aloud in class; 2) identify one key passage in the reading and briefly discussing its significance; 3) pose two questions about the reading for the class to consider. I WANT YOU TO TRY HARD TO LEAD, OR AT LEAST HELP LEAD, SOME DISCUSSION IN CLASS ON THOSE DAYS.
February 13 MIDTERM EXAMINATION
Week 5 Foundations of Economic Sociology I: Karl Polanyi and the Notion of Institutions
February 18
Read: Richard Swedberg and Mark Granovetter, “Introduction to the Second Edition,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 1-
February 20
Read: Karl Polanyi, “The Economy as Instituted Process,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 31-
Week 6 The Free Market as Catastrophic Social Construct
February 25
Read: Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation , Introduction (by Fred Block), plus chapters 3-
February 27
Read: Karl Polanyi, The Great Transformation , chapters 12-18, 21
Week 7 Foundations of Economic Sociology II: Embeddedness
March 3 General Theory
Read: Mark Granovetter, “Economic Action and Social Structure: the Problem of Embeddedness,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 51-
March 5 Application to the World of Business: Credit Relations
Read: Brian Uzzi, “Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 207-
Week 8 Embeddedness (continued)
March 10 Application to the Informal Economy
Read: Alejandro Portes and Julia Sensenbrenner, “Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 112-
Read: Vilna Bashi, Survivial of the Knitted: Immigrant Social Networks in a Stratified World , chapter 5 (sakai)
March 12 Application to Early Modern Commercial Capitalism
Read: Paul McLean and John Padgett, “Obligation, Risk, and Opportunity in the Renaissance Economy, in The Sociology of the Economy , ed. Frank Dobbin (Russell Sage, 2004) (sakai)
SPRING BREAK – ENJOY!
Week 9 Economic Organization
March 24 Applicaton to the ‘New’ Economy
Read: Mark Granovetter, Coase Revisited” Business Groups in the Modern Economy,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 327-
Read: AnnaLee Saxenian, “Inside-Out: Regional Networks and Industrial Adaptation in Silicon Valley and Route 128,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 357-
March 26 Application to the World of Management
Read: Melville Dalton, “Men Who Manage,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 247-
Week 10 Cultural Approaches to Markets
March 31 The Presence of (Informal) Norms
Read: Stewart Macaulay, “Non-Contractual Relations in Business,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 191-
Read: Clifford Geertz, “The Bazaar Economy: Information and Search in Peasant Marketing,” in The Sociology of Economic Life , pp. 139-
April 2 The Relevance of Honor to Economic Life
Read: Calvin Morrill, “Conflict Management, Honor, and Organizational Change,” American Journal of Sociology 97,3 (November 1991): 585-621 (sakai)
Week 14 Consumption
April 28 Aspiring to Social Mobility through Consumption
Read: Alex Kotlowicz, “False Connections,” in The Consumer Society Reader , edited by Juliet Schor and Douglas B. Holt, pp. 253-8 (sakai)
April 30 The Politics of Consumption
Read: Juliet B. Schor, “Towards a New Politics of Consumption,” in The Consumer Society Reader , edited by Juliet Schor and Douglas B. Holt, pp. 446-62 (sakai)
Week ‘15’ Concluding Discussions
May 5
No new reading for today; review and discussion only
FINAL EXAM:
WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 12:00-3:00 p.m.
