Two Issues for Economic Sociologists to Think About

Abstract

Even though economic sociology is currently seen as a highly successful and dynamic subfield of sociology, there still exist a number of issues for economic sociologists to address. In this brief essay I point to two of these: the role of reflexivity in economic sociology and the question of whether economic sociology can also be a policy science. As to the former issue, I note that economic sociologists rarely ask questions about reflexivity, that is, to what extent their own understanding of the economy is related to the fact that they themselves are part of the reality that they analyze. The issue of reflexivity, I also argue, should preferably be understood in a broad sense and include the production of economic knowledge and economic theory more generally. Few economic sociologists have discussed whether economic sociology should be a policy science, with a few exceptions. One of these is Pierre Bourdieu, who also has many interesting ideas about economic suffering and the role of theodicy in the economy (why is there suffering in the world, and why do some people suffer more than others?).