Economic Sociology notes

THE CONSUMPTION

We have the same path, we share that sociologist and economists work on the same

topic and in the same field.

How the consumer demand is formed?

Also in this case we have 2 different approach and results:

For an economists the consumer demand emerge when people try to optimize



their marginal utilities. People are looking for the best opportunities, through the cost

benefit analysis.

For sociologist this is true but is not enough. Also in this case we have a



complementary explanation. They are oriented by the theory of social action. So for

us, the utility is only one factor that pushes the demand.

What are the other factors that can drive the consumption demand?

The relationship with other member of the company, but also cultural values and

believes.

The economic sociology development

Sociology is a young science, because is one of the last discipline that define its

August

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scientific program of sociology, defined at the beginning 19 century, by

Comte. He was a French sociology and he formalized the scientific project.

There is mystery about the born of economic sociology and we can recognize two date

of reference: 1824 or 1836.

Here we pay attention on two different events: in the first date, we take a letter that

Comte sent to a friend in which he spoke about interest in founding a new discipline. In

the letter there is a description of scientific program and also shares his doubts about

the name of the discipline; two different ideas were present:



1. Social physics application of physics to the study of individuals and society

2. Sociology a neologism, a new word used to recognize this new discipline

 13

The second event relies on the publication of the first book, in which Comte presented

the general rule of discipline.

The origins

Economic sociology is not much more than a century old, because we start from

 th

late 19 century.

The first time in which we can find the term “economic sociology” is in a book

 edited by W. Stanley Jevons, in 1879.

The term was taken over by the sociologists, and appears – for example – in the

 works of Weber and Durkheim during the years 1890-1920. The field has been

called also sociology of economic life, sociology of economics, economy and

society, and more recently socio-economics.

The stages

The birth 1890-1920

 

The season of relative latency (a period in which the phenomenon exists but it is

 not ell-known and visible) 1921-1984. Here we have a period of emergence

and than the “decline”.

The revival 1985-… Here sociology emerges again, after 1985. In this case

 

the boundaries between these three periods, are really clear, because all

changes are related to the publications of specific contributions and books.

All the changes are related to the publication of a specific book. Here we focus on the

fact that Mark Granovetter, published an essay about the revival of economic

sociology.

The traditions

The classical school 1890-1920. This approach is related to the first stage of

 

economic sociology and is dominated by a macro sociological perspective. This

means that this school focuses only on society, and the relative interaction.

The contemporary approach 1980s. It is an approach related to the third

 

stage, this means from the 80s to nowadays. All the big faculty in the world,

have a course of economic sociology that do research in the field, with the new

contemporary approach.

So here we start again with the M. Granovetter essay.

The birth of economic sociology

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In 19 century, sociology didn’t have a proper subfield. We can recognize that several

study in the first stage of sociology, could be called “economic sociology”.

In the classical period, many scholars (sociologist or economist) worked together, so

several studies of the first stage are not labeling as economic sociology, but could be

involved in the field of economic sociology.

In the first stage of sociology, all the studies were focused on the “great

transformation”. The latter is the shift from the traditional society to the industrial

one (mass consumption and well-being).

Very diffused topics are:

The genesis of capitalism

 The origin of capitalistic society

 14

The processes of modernization the shift from the tradition to the modern.

 

I must define what is the most important characteristic of the classical approach in

economic sociology. I must state that the classical approach focuses on the

relationship between economic institutions and social institutions.

Examples could be:

Economic institutions the market, private property, money.

 

Social institution the nuclear family, the government, schools, trade unions.

 

Money was not very important in the traditional society, but is fundamental in the

modern one.

Weber “The protestant ethic and the spirit of Capitalism”

Subject: the relationship between material interest and ideas.

 Thesis: religious beliefs play a fundamental role in the rise and spread of

 capitalistic society. 

Method: historical analysis compared analysis. Means that studies different

 context and compared the results.

Protestantism is driven by a desire to be saved and acts accordingly. Individual

becomes to believe that secular work, carried out in a methodical manner, represent a

means of salvation. When this happens, religious interest is combined with economic

interest.

The importance of:

Capitalism in the capitalistic accumulation (when religion is really diffused)

 Secularization in the formation of mass markets (when the religion falls down).

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LESSON 4

The Birth of Economic Sociology

Karl Marx (1818-1883) The Capital. It is a classical author of economic

 

sociology, and also of economic. He paid attention to the transformation and all

the changed and challenges of the new economic and social order. In this book

there is a huge analysis of the characteristics of economics and the ones of

society. There is also a description about the relationship between economics

and society.

Max Weber (1864-1920) Economy and Society It is a collection of essays

 about economic and society

Émile Durkheim (1858-1917) The Social Division of Labor. The way in which

 the community organizes the division of labor, and the manner in which they

manage to be in conflict. People have different skills, goals and competences

and they work together because they need each other, this is an example of

organic solidarity.

George Simmel (1858-1918) The Philosophy of Money. The genesis of

 capitalism and the role of money in the contemporary society. The way in which

societies shift from trading to the use of market and the use of money.

All these authors recognize the transformation of the economy, and all the factors that

contributed to it.

Weber and Simmel worked as economists before recognizing their interest in sociology.

Each of these authors is considered founding fathers of sociology.

They built up an analysis that did not exist before

 They focused on the most fundamental question of the field



Main goal To develop a scientific approach to the analysis of society.



th

In the 19 century there wasn’t a scientific project about the analysis of society, so

they proposed a new scientific analysis to reach this goal. They started from methods

useful to study hard sciences, and they tried to translate these methods to the study

of society. This isn’t easy as in the social realm there are many sources of limitation.

In this period the industrial revolution emerged, and all the sociologists were

interested in the causes, processes and dynamics of the revolution and the effects on

society.

In the classical period, the authors paid attention in particular to the analysis of the

relationship between society and economy, and they have done a historical excursion.

They try to recognize in which way a new organization of society and economy spread.

The analysis is not only an historical excursion, but it is also the foundation of the

sociology.

Hypothesis To evaluate if the hypothesis can be confirmed or not, a sociologist

must use the methods validated by the classical authors.

Some classical topics:

Industrialization The rise in the society of a new form of production, new tools

 

Urbanization People move from rural areas to the city. In this case we have a

 

change, not only in the place where people live, but also in their lifestyles. 16

Rapid technological development (including application to warfare) The role of

 machinery in our society, and they include in their analysis the rise of warfare.

Use machinery to sell war tools to other nations.

Collective action and revolutions Such as striking, The Luddites are an

 

example because they refused machinery in the industrial production.

Classical Concepts:

Culture

 Social Power

 Ideology

 Religion

 Class

 Economic Structure



The economists do not normally use these concepts.

The State of Relative Latency

In the first stage, most of the people who are now part of the heritage of sociology

studied economic behavior and called themselves economist. (Marx, Weber, etc)

In the scholars’ approach to the issue there are, still, many differences.

Some authors were inductive, deriving theories of social behavior by observing

society. I look at society, I collect data, I analyze it and then I try to explain in which

way the subject is organized.

Other authors (today called economists) were deductive, deriving theories of social

behavior; they start from the axiom that self-interest drives individual and social

behavior.

We also have the other two fallacies of modern economics.

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Towards the end of 19 century, scholars engaged a “war of methods” between the

two fields, inductive and deductive.

In the 1930s, Talcott Parsons, to gain acceptance for his approach, formalized the

division

of intellectual labor in which:

Economists studied and explained economic behavior using deductive models;

 Sociologists studied all other kinds of social behavior using inductive methods.



Scholars are theoretically discouraged from participating in the economics-sociology

dialogue. Economics came increasingly physic. More use of mathematical tools, start

and try to verify hypothesis, and so on.

On the other hand, sociologists became increasingly empirical, this means that they

look at the society and try to explain behavior.

Sociologists continued to see economy and society as interconnected, but their

attention became more and more focused on non-instrumental actions and

processes.

Instrumental action An action oriented by the cost benefit analy