Economic Sociology in the Next Decade and Beyond

In: American behavioral scientist: ABS, Band 50, Heft 8, S. 993-1014

Abstract

This article assesses "Economic Sociology in the Next Decade and Beyond." In addressing this broad thematic, as it relates to what some have called the new economic sociology , the article notes the "legacy effect" that a polemic with conventional economic conceptualizations has had on the recent reemergence and shape of this field, the relationship that the predominate schools of thought have to one another and the centrifugal tendencies they currently exhibit in this field, and the relationship this field of study currently has to general sociological theories and research streams. The article expressly argues that it is essential to the current and future relevance of the new economic sociology that it seek to bridge key concepts and ideas across methodologically and substantively distinct subfoci within its purview; enhance the theoretical continuity between its findings and theoretical insights and those that explain more generic sociological processes; and more explicitly theorize the role of agency, materiality, and the place of inequality in economic contexts, especially markets, as these are currently undertheorized in this field of study.