Embeddedness and informal norms: Institutionalisms and anthropology

Abstract

Institutionalisms, old and new, are multifaceted and heterogeneous but they share a desire to unshackle the economy to some extent, and open it out to an inclusive society. This gives room for a dialogue with anthropology. Two concepts are discussed here: (1) the embeddedness paradigm has been influential according two very different perspectives:economic anthropology (focusing on unequal relations) and culturalist approaches (focusing on common social values and norms), both being too unilateral and too general. (2) The informal institutions (or informal norms) issue has been promisingly raised by new-institutional economists, but the questions they posed are more interesting and stimulating than their too often formal and stereotyped answers. It is in fact between sociology of institutions on one side, anthropology of public action on the other, that the dialogue is the most fruitful, based on both sides on a strong empirical commitment, a combination of the norm-based approach and the power based approach, and an historical perspective.