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Preface ix. Acknowledgments. General Concerns. 1 Introducing Economic Sociology. Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. The Definition of Economic Sociology
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Preface ix
ward 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.
Acknowledgments
The Russell Sage Foundation once again figures at the head of the list of those to whom we are grateful for facilitating the appearance of this Handbook. As he did a decade ago, Eric Wanner, its president, secured the support of his board of trustees to finance all the activities necessary for creating the volume, including the all-important conference among authors at the foundation in September 2002, where first drafts were circulated and benefited from the comments and criticisms from all the other contributors. Eric was supportive of our efforts throughout; we would like to record our more general appreciation for his encouragement of economic sociology during the past two decades.
Bindu Chadaga at Russell Sage was the staff person designated to shepherd the project from beginning to end. Her work in processing correspondence and manuscripts and in organizing the authors' conference was a model of efficiency. There was not one flaw or snag under her management. At the early stages of organizing the
project, Julie Schumacher, Smelser's assistant at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (Stanford) deftly orchestrated our work and handled the complex process of inviting and signing authors.
Without editors authors are lost, and we happily acknowledge a multitude of debts to Suzanne Nichols of Russell Sage and Peter Dougherty of Princeton University Press.
It is not customary for editors to thank their authors in notes of acknowledgment, but we were given such excellent intellectual effort, responsiveness, and cooperation that we must make public our debt to them. We would like to single out Mark Granovetter in particular, who was a valued advisor throughout, and put us on to lines of research that we ourselves might have missed or neglected. In particular, he suggested both the topic and the authors for the chapter on the economic sociology of the ancient world, which we believe is one of the most interesting and ingenious applications of economic sociology in the volume.
Part I
General Concerns
1 Introducing Economic Sociology
Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg
As a designated field of inquiry, economic sociology is not much more than a century old, even though its intellectual roots are identifiable in older traditions of philosophical and social thought. 1 During the past quarter-century it has experienced an explosive growth, and now stands as one of the most conspicuous and vital subfields of its parent discipline. In this introduction we first define the field and distinguish it from mainstream economics. Next we trace the classical tradition of economic sociology, as found in the works of Marx, Weber, Durkheim, Schumpeter, Polanyi, and Parsons- Smelser. Finally, we cite some more recent developments and topics of concern in economic sociology. Throughout our discussion in this chapter we emphasize the importance of paying attention to economic interests and social relations.
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The Definition of Economic Sociology
Economic sociology—to use a term that Weber and Durkheim introduced2—can be defined simply as the sociological perspective applied to economic phenomena. A similar but more elaborate version is the application of the frames of reference, variables, and explanatory models of sociology to that complex of activities which is concerned with the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of scarce goods and services. 3 One way to make this definition more specific is to indicate the variables, models, and so on, that the economic sociologist employs. When Smelser first put forth that definition (1963, 27-28; 1976, 37-38), he mentioned the sociological perspectives of personal interaction, groups, social structures (institutions), and social controls (among which sanctions, norms, and values are central). Given recent developments, we would add that perspectives of social networks, gender, and cultural contexts have also become central in economic sociology (e. g., Granovetter 1974, 1985a, 1995; Zelizer 1988). In addition, the international dimension of economic life has assumed greater salience among economic sociolo-
gists, at the same time as that dimension has come to penetrate the actual economies of the contemporary world (Makler, Martinelli, and Smelser 1982; Evans 1995).
Mainstream Economics and Economic Sociology Compared
We now compare economic sociology and mainstream economics as a way of further elucidating the sociological perspective on the economy. This is a useful exercise only if qualified by the caution that both bodies of inquiry are much more complex than any brief comparison would suggest. Any general statement almost immediately yields an exception or qualification. To illustrate the caution on each side of the comparison:
1. In economics the classical and neoclassical traditions have enjoyed a certain dominance— hence the label mainstream—but the basic assumptions of those traditions have been modified and developed in many directions. In a classic statement, Knight ([1921] 1985, 76-79) stressed that neoclassical economics rested on the premises that actors have complete information and that information is free Since that time economics has developed traditions df analysis based on assumptions of risk and uncertainty (for example, Sandmo 1971; Weber 2001) and information as a cost (for example, Stigler 1961; Lippmann and McCall 2001). In addition, numerous versions of economic rationality—for example, Simon's (1982) emphasis on " satisficing" and " bounded rationality" —have appeared. Still other variations on rational behavior have been developed in behavioral economics, which incorporates many psycho*- logical assumptions at variance with the mainstream (Mullainthan and Thaler 2001; Camerer, Loewenstein, and Rabin 2004). Looking in the direction of sociology, some economics now incorporates " norms" and " institutions, " though with meanings different from those found in the sociological tradition.
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