Examining critical and contemporary issues in the sociology of economic life, this text highlights a range of theoretical perspectives and examines shifts in the organization of economy and society.

This accessible guide to the rapidly growing and interdisciplinary field of modern economic sociology offers critical insights into its fundamental concepts and developments. International in scope, contributions from leading economic sociologists and sociologically-minded economists explore the intersections and implications for theory and empirical research in both disciplines.

This book systematically reconstructs the origins and new advances in economic sociology. By presenting both classical and contemporary theory and research, the volume identifies and describes the continuity between past and present, and the move from economics to economic sociology. Most comprehensive and up-to-date overview available by an internationally renowned, award-winning economic sociologist Systematically reconstructs the origins and new advances in economic sociology Organizes the perspectives and methods of economic sociologists of the classical and contemporary eras, including coverage of modernization, globalization, and the welfare state Provides insights into the social consequences of capitalism in the past and present for students of economic sociology.

The sociological study of economic activity has witnessed a significant resurgence. Recent texts have chronicled economic sociology's nineteenth-century origins while pointing to the importance of context and power in economic life, yet the field lacks a clear understanding of the role that concepts at different levels of abstraction play in its organization. Economic Sociology fills this critical gap by surveying the current state of the field while advancing a framework for further theoretical development. Alejandro Portes examines economic sociology's principal assumptions, key explanatory concepts, and selected research sites. He argues that economic activity is embedded in social and cultural relations, but also that power and the unintended consequences of rational purposive action must be factored in when seeking to explain or predict economic behavior. Drawing upon a wealth of examples, Portes identifies three strategic sites of research--the informal economy, ethnic enclaves, and transnational communities--and he eschews grand narratives in favor of mid-range theories that help us understand specific kinds of social action. The book shows how the meta-assumptions of economic sociology can be transformed, under certain conditions, into testable propositions, and puts forward a theoretical agenda aimed at moving the field out of its present impasse.

This handbook provides an overview on major developments that occurred in the field of economic sociology after its rebirth since the 1980s in the US. It offers new insights on the uniqueness of European economic sociology compared to US economic sociology which emerged at the end of the 20th century. The handbook presents economic sociology as a developing field which started with certain foundations as new economic sociology, widening the perspective by introducing social factors thereby focusing more on general belief systems, social forms of coordination and the relationships between society and the economy. It offers an outstanding portrait of the research field helping to identify major foundations and trajectories as well as new research perspectives for a globalized economic sociology. This makes the handbook appeal to specialized researchers of the field, researchers from other disciplines interested in economic phenomena, as well as graduate and postgraduate students.

An illuminating account of the development of Durkheim's economic sociology Émile Durkheim's work has traditionally been viewed as a part of sociology removed from economics. Rectifying this perception, Durkheim and the Birth of Economic Sociology is the first book to provide an in-depth look at the contributions made to economic sociology by Durkheim and his followers. Philippe Steiner demonstrates the relevance of economic factors to sociology and shows how the Durkheimians inform today's economic systems. Steiner argues that there are two stages in Durkheim's approach to the economy—a sociological critique of political economy and a sociology of economic knowledge. In his early works, Durkheim critiques economists and their categories, and tries to analyze the division of labor from a social rather than economic perspective. From the mid-1890s onward, Durkheim's preoccupations shifted to questions of religion and the sociology of knowledge. Durkheim's disciples, such as Maurice Halbwachs and François Simiand, synthesized and elaborated on Durkheim's first-stage arguments, while his ideas on religion and the economy were taken up by Marcel Mauss. Steiner indicates that the ways in which the Durkheimians rooted the sociology of economic knowledge in the educational system allows for an invaluable perspective on the role of economics in modern society, similar to the perspective offered by Max Weber's work. Recognizing the power of the Durkheimian approach, Durkheim and the Birth of Economic Sociology assesses the effect of this important thinker and his successors on one of the most active fields in contemporary sociology.

Contributors examine the nature & workings of capitalism from the perspective of economic sociology.