Contemporary economic sociology

Economic sociology experienced a remarkable revival in the 1980s. The flurry of articles in the subfield formed what is now called the new economic sociology. This term was coined by the economic sociologist Mark Granovetter, who emphasized the embeddedness of economic action in concrete social relations. Granovetter contended that institutions are actually congealed social networks, and, because economic action takes place within these networks, social scientists must consider interpersonal relationships when studying the economy. Markets themselves were studied as networks of producers watching each other and trying to carve out niches. Such network perspectives explicitly account for interrelationships, theorizing about the implications of network structures for economic activity and organization. Although networks have been at the core of new economic sociology, other economic sociologists criticized network analysis for its inability to account for the interactions of economies with politics and culture.

Other economic sociologists began to examine cultural strains in economic action, regulation, and organization. Sociologists have seen culture as an important component of economic life since Weber, and this point of view gained greater currency. Culture becomes important to economic activity through frames, categories, scripts, and concepts as well as norms, values, and routinized practice. For instance, one researcher examined how children were once regarded as providing the family with a certain economic value but increasingly became seen as without fiscal benefit, and she also examined how money is defined and categorized socially. Another researcher examined the ways in which prior political institutions shaped the structure of the railroad industry in the United States, France, and Britain.

Since Polanyi, economic sociologists have contended that the birth of the free market was an institutional transformation necessarily supported by the state. This became generally accepted and led to the idea that development is essentially about institutional change. Although this is generally accepted, it leads policy makers in a variety of directions. Economic sociologists, however, generally point to the impact that the relationship between local private elites and the political elites in the state has on economic development. The interconnection of the state and the economy does not mean that the state’s role is simply to destroy local institutional structures, which may be perceived as a hindrance to growth, in favour of free market structures. Instead, economic sociologists pointed to the importance of “embedded autonomy.” The idea is that to provide an institutional environment in which economic growth can occur, the state must be connected to local private elites while remaining independent from them in important respects. This allows the state to make public investments that are generally beneficial and to encourage local investment and entrepreneurship while avoiding being captured by local interests. The ability of states to remain simultaneously connected to and distanced from local elites is facilitated by a dedicated, meritocratic civil service reaping long-term rewards equal to those found in the private sector. Although related to development, the work done by economic sociologists on market transition constitutes its own distinct field of inquiry. Despite this separation, the conclusions drawn are strikingly similar. Disregard for local institutions and the imposition of market structures with the simultaneous hamstringing of state regulatory capacity results in predatory capitalism of one sort or another.

Economic sociology has also made crucial contributions to the study of global economic integration and particularly to the debate over an argument asserting that global economic integration will force institutional convergence in many areas of life. This is, of course, again, predicated on the opposition between state and economy, as well as the notion that there is a single most efficient solution to the various problems of governance. Actually, international economic integration gives dramatic evidence for the mutual constitution of state and economy. Although theories opposing state and economy predict that with increases in free trade the role of the government would be reduced, numerous empirical studies show that government regulation has increased substantially with increases in free trade. The extension of markets across international borders has been accompanied by various international governmental bodies that seek to ensure the property rights, and rules of exchange, necessary for markets to operate. Often, the regulations these bodies provide are minimal, but they are crucial for establishing these markets, and the amount of regulation tends to increase over time as markets become more integrated. Economic sociologists have emphasized the ways in which states and economies, including markets, depend on one another.