The economic sociology of markets, industries, and firms

Abstract

Economic sociology is quickly evolving as an ‘‘umbrella’’ theoretical enterprise seeking to integrate various insights drawn from organizational, cultural, and political sociology. Its focus of attention is on what makes markets, industries, and ¢rms stable arrangements for organizing economic exchange. At its core, economic sociology is concerned with the social organization of the economy, or, if one prefers, with the social foundations of economic life. While the greatest sociological minds made important, if extremely diverse, contributions to this area ^ from Max Weber to Karl Polanyi and Talcott Parsons ^ few sociologists have attempted to provide this re-emerging ¢eld with a solid theoretical underpinning. Neil Fligstein is perhaps the one who has most successfully formulated a theoretical agenda for economic sociology, and pursued it in a variety of empirical papers. The Architecture of Markets is one of those books that no sociologist ^ economic or not ^ can aiord to ignore because it speaks to fundamental debates in sociology, including the origins of institutions, the shared understandings that underlie action, and the complex relationship between society and the state. In a diierent way, the essays in TheTwenty-FirstCentury Firm, edited by Paul DiMaggio, a very prominent organizational and cultural sociologist, address similar issues. In combination, the two volumes oier a stimulating set of concepts, ideas, and perspectives ^ and no shortage of unresolved questions and puzzles.