Economic Sociology notes

ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY

LESSON 1

What is economic sociology?

Economic sociology is a subfield of sociology and is NOT a stereotypical sociology.

There are some important differences between sociology and economic sociology.

Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. It means



that the people interact each other, so they work and consume in groups.

For these reasons sociologists keep attention on:

Characteristics and the role of social relationship : when we interact with others,

 the relationship have a particular characteristics, and they are all different;

How those relationships influence behavior: this means that we are not free.

 Normally, when we interact with other people, they are able to influence our

actions or decisions;

How societies develop and change.



Here, we are starting from the micro environment, to the macro environment.

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We have 2 levels of analysis :

Macrosociology

1. concentrates on large-scale phenomena or entire civilizations;

Microsociology

2. consists in studying small groups (like group of friends or family,

but also the team work).

Sociology consists in a critical approach to the reality. For this reason, sociologist

superior

claims that the sociological knowledge is to every day common sense.

(Everyone is able to understand the reality).

Sociological knowledge is superior because is scientific approach useful to understand

the reality around us.

Why is superior to every day common sense?

The first reason is that the scientific conclusions are based on empirical evidences.

So sociologists observe the reality, then collect information, develop the analysis on

those info and finally he propose the final result. All the theories proposed are

based on empirical evidence.

This is very important because is the main distinction between sociologist and

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philosopher .

Their rigorous analysis to the problem is supported by two analytical tools:

The sociological imagination

 The value neutrality

 no overlapping

There is between the two concepts. They support the critical approach

to the reality.

Sociological imagination

This concept was proposed by John Wright Mills (an economist) in 1959:

1 We cannot be involved in both

2 they look at the reality and propose the observation without collect empirical evidence. 1

The awareness of the relationship between and individual and the wider society

 this means that we are not really free and for this reason, we can be



influenced by the value or by cultures of the whole society.

For example When I analyze a sociological or economic phenomenon, my



ability to understand the reality can be influenced by my value. If I study why

women are not highly involved in the company board, my opinion can be

influence by my gender.

So, is important to understand that the vision can be influenced.

The ability to view our own society as an outsider and also to overcome the

 limited experiences and cultural biases In this case we have problem: the



culture or value can influence our sensitivity. So we must try to see the reality

as an outsider. From an outsider point of view, the reality is more objective.

Value neutrality

On the contrary we have the concept of value neutrality. In this case the author is Max

Weber, from 1904 to 1917. He proposed a general definition about the concept of

value neutrality.

The awareness that scientific analysis involves value and that this values

 oriented scholar’s vision. The vision is the capacity to explain the reality,

through out point of view, which is the value of society. For example, let’s think

about the religion: if I have some believes, I can read the reality through these

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“lens ”.

Is right or not speculative finance? It depends. If I have a strong believe in

Muslim, I cannot understand speculative finance because the latter is contrary

to my religious believes.

The ability to separate the analysis of facts from the value judgment . This is

 important but is really difficult.

What are differences between the analysis of fact and the value judgment? If I

focus on rumors, I’m focusing on stereotypical vision, which is not value neutral.

The value judgment is more than rumors. Inside the value judgment, I decide

what is good and what is not for the society.

Is not only the believes, but is more than this: i.e. I’m analyzing why migrants

are not fully included in our society.

We have several examples of situations in which we judge and we do not do

the analysis of facts. We can have problems of values at personal level or the

social mindset.

Is the value judgment personal or related on its society?

It can be both. Of course there is a huge role of believes, so people are able to judge

what is right and what is not, but normally we share with others our believes. So there

is a social component of our judgment.

Subject and basic topics

Sociology can discuss any topics.

Can I explain from the sociological perspective, the ways in which people live?

Yes, there is a field or subfield of sociology that analyze in which way people use

spaces.

3 “point of view” 2

Therefore is difficult to offer a precise statement of what makes sociology distinctive.

Sociology is basically about:

Inequality (class, race, gender, ethnicity etc.)

 Culture (mass and youth culture, religions etc.)

 Social work and criminology.



Sociology focuses attention on these actions that are not instrumental or rational.

Instrumental means that are not related to the cost benefit analysis.

The sociological perspective is distinctive and we use it for all subjects present in the

world.

Holistic approach

Sociology is the unique discipline that explores all the associations between the

economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of the subjects studied.

E.g. If talking about social inclusion, sociologist pays attention to the economic, social

cultural political factors, which means it is using the holistic approach as it is paying

attention to all the parts included in this phenomenon.

So sociology has the ability to synthesize different perspective: economic, juridical,

cultural and so on.

Different theoretical perspective

The functionalist perspective 

1. the world is basically a stable and ongoing

entity.

So scholars focus on the way in which people produce and reproduce over time

the same order. why people produce

For example we live in a post-industrial society,

 these order? This is the basic question of the functionalist perspective.

why? Why there is a huge control of

People act always in the same way,

change? We learn culture, through family, a range of belief and models

that we apply in everyday routine. So in this case we focus on over

socialized nature of people. This field of analysis is strongly related to the

American effort to understand the modern world, so all the authors

involved in this field, came from the American reality.

The conflict perspective

2. the world is composed of many groups in conflict.



This is inspired by Marxist orientation. All these groups are in conflicts: so each

group has different interests, so there is a conflict between them involved in

society. In this perspective the conflict is an engine of change. For the capitalist

society, the source of conflict was between labor and capital.

The interactionist perspective

3. the social word is made by everyday routine



interactions ( non verbal communication – gestures, facial expressions and

postures). We are going to focus not on society but on the idea that the social

world is made by the everyday routine. This is why the perspective focuses also

on the non-verbal communication, and qualitative factors of analysis. For

example the observation of the reality, the way in which people act and build

the reality.

The first and the second are perspectives of the macro sociology level of analysis,

otherwise the third is related to micro sociology. 3

The most diffused perspective is the functionalist perspective, because for sociologist

is really important to understand why societies are produced and reproduced over

time, and why there are some models that survives for long time.

The impact on society

If we are able to understand why there are problems in the society, we can intervene

in the situation and we can solve them.

We can recognize 3 paths in which our knowledge can be useful for society:

The policy sociology

1. helps institution to define better government decision and

regulatory strategies.

a. Examples: if a professor works for the National Government, and give

advice about the way in which we can effort the migrant crises, I’m doing

policy sociology. So I support the Government in the management of

migrant crises.

b. Again, if I’m doing consultancy for the EU about consumption policy or

inclusion policy, I make policy sociology.

c. If Donald Trump involves a group of sociologist to solve the problem of

digital consumer protection, the group is doing policy sociology, because

help the government to solve the problem.

The critical sociology

2. evaluated the results of the regulation system. This means

that we have an intervention: for example the government try to coordinate the

economic realm and the sociologist works in this field on the evaluation of the

effects of the coordination action. For example in the EU we have several

directive, and strategy for consumer protection and the sociologist try to

understand if these policies are good or not policy evaluation.



The public sociology

3. supports a major awareness of social issues, the actions of

lobbying and the rise of social movements. I’m doing public sociology when I try

to support a consumer association or any kind of lobby. The lobby for the green

production or for the sharing economy etc.

These 3 approach are not overlapping and not synonymous.

ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY – definition

The Economic Sociology (is a sub field of sociology) attempts to arrive at a systematic

sociological understanding of economic life. So I’m doing economic sociology when I

use the sensibility of sociologist to better understand the way in which economy is

organized.

Example: consumption, the propension to be entrepreneurs, or why people accept or

not a job, looking for a certain occupation.

Economic sociology we must recognize that we use economic perspective to study

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economic , economically relevant and economically conditioned phenomena.

What are differences?

Study economic is the normally aspects of the economic life: money, occupation,

and consumption. They are instrumental actions based on cost benefit analysis, and

are part of the economic relevant.

4 Related to the real life, consumption for example. Entrepreneurship is the basic tool of the

capitalist models of economy. 4

If I focus on occupation or consumption, I explain economic phenomena. This means

that the phenomenon is related to the economical relevant (consumption,

entrepreneurship etc.). Economic sociology pay attention also on other phenomena:

economically relevant phenomena.

Does religion can be a subject of economic sociology?

For example: Yes, because

religious belief can influence the way in which we organize the economy. This is a

typical example of economically relevant phenomena. Is not involved directly in

the economic life but it can influence it.

The church cannot survive if is not able to collect or manage money economically

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conditioned phenomena. 5

LESSON 2

Economic sociology uses the frame of reference, variables and explanatory models

of sociology to analyze:

Study of economic

- the complex of activities, which is concerned with the

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production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of scarce good and services

So, are goods that are not really diffused in the society.

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- The influence of non-economic institutions – such as political and religious one –

on the economic phenomena i.e. if I study why people with strong religious

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believes don’t have a propensity to complex financial products, I study the

influence of non-economic institution, on the economic phenomena. Of course,

the financial products are an economic good, related to economic phenomena

and I study why a non-economic institution can influence my propensity.

Economically Conditioned phenomena

- the way in which all aspects of social

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life may be affected by economic influences let’s think to the nuclear

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family, which is a particular structure of family, and is a typical organization in

the industrial age. The organization of labor is going to push a particular

social phenomenon.

structure of family 

We use the frame of reference, we use the explanatory models of the method of

sociology, to analyze something. We use economic sociology to explain economic

phenomenon or others, related to the economy. 5

In the economic sociology perspective, the economic phenomena are not

necessarily mediated by monetary payments. We can understand this statement

through an example.

Let’s think about the term consumption: for an economist is clear that is equal to

purchase. The most diffused definition of consumption is the “utilization of economic

resources for the satisfaction of human need and want through the purchase of goods

and services”.

Here, I exchange money with a good or service.

For a sociologist, the consumption is like a series of acts.

1. The desire of an item

2. The act of acquiring it, not necessarily buying it

3. The use of the item

4. The disposing of what is left of the item: recycling, or give back my product.

5. The emerging of a new desire

In this case we have a cycle, from the point 5 we go back on the point 1. For

sociologist, the consumption is a cycle, with different step that start and ended at the

same point.

In our society, this cycle is faster, and for sociologist the symbolic aspects of

consumption are more important than the commercial one. So we’ re talking about

brand, purchase, exchange, value etc.

Sociologists analyzed economic life at various levels:

Individual

 Group

 Household

 Organization



5 Production, distribution and consumption. 6

Network

 Market

 Industry

 Country and world system



Some consumption research questions:

What are the weight and the role of psychological factors

Individual level

 

(emotions, feelings etc.) in the lifestyle definition? Each person has a particular

lifestyle, which is influenced by several psychological aspects.

What are the contributions of sociological variables (age, gender,

Groups

 

class, religion, culture...) for understanding the behavior models? So why I

purchase, why I consume certain kind of item. For example a women can prefer

a specific color, or specific items.

What influences have the interpersonal relationships in

Household

 

determining consumption patterns? We work on the role of family, at

household’s level.

How are products associated and marketed for different gender?

 What are the characteristics of household’s standard package? Standard

 package is a set of products and service used or acquired by the family. As we

know, family is the basic unit of consumption.

How and how much can the ideology of modern consumerism influence our

 patterns of consumption? Consumerism Propensity to consume

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a lot of things. Is a synonymous as over consumption.

How successful is the advertising world in manipulating our buying

 

Industry

patterns? Is the West really more of a ‘consumer civilization’ than other

Countries

 

countries? Does the global market place promote cultural homogeneity

World system

 

or heterogeneity? Global market is going to push the homogeneity of brands

and items, but promote the heterogeneity of meanings, because each culture

consumes these items with different meanings and reasons.

An other source of differences is between economics and sociology.

Economic sociology seeks to understand economic phenomena in their social and

cultural context. For an economist this is not normal, because he works in the

economic environment, and don’t care about the social contents.

Sociologist recognized that the 3 big assumptions could be a limit of fallacies common

to the orthodox economic analysis.

Orthodox economic field is dominated by a tradition of neo classical



economy.

Sociologists don’t agree the orthodox, because they think that in this perspective

there are 3 main fallacies.

The social realm is separate from the economic one

1. There is no interaction



between the economic context and the social and cultural context. This is a

huge assumption, with some problems: if we think about our consumption, we

can recognize that my economic choice is always influenced by several cultural

and social factors. For example, I’m addicted to fashion, for others fashion is

strong attractive, and this attractiveness push my consumption in a certain way.

The individual are rational, free and aware of their needs

2. If we focus on our



experience, we can have doubts. Are we really rational when we consume

something or not? My choice is influenced by relationship. 7

I.e. If my partner loves go to stadium, probably I decide to following him there.

The aggregation of individual-level behavior is easy and non-problematic.

3. The aggregation of individual level behavior is easy and non-problematic.

So, economic sociology, try to analyze the economic phenomenon in their social and

cultural context, without falling into these 3 fallacies common to orthodox economic

analysis.

The sociological contributions to key debate represent either complementary or

competing explanations to those proposed by the economist.

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Complementary Sociologists accept the idea of the economist and try to



integrate the understanding of the phenomenon.

For example: I work on the r