E-Book Overview
The sociological study of economic activity has witnessed a significant resurgence. Recent texts have chronicled economic sociology's nineteenth-century origins while pointing to the importance of context and power in economic life, yet the field lacks a clear understanding of the role that concepts at different levels of abstraction play in its organization. Economic Sociology fills this critical gap by surveying the current state of the field while advancing a framework for further theoretical development. Alejandro Portes examines economic sociology's principal assumptions, key explanatory concepts, and selected research sites. He argues that economic activity is embedded in social and cultural relations, but also that power and the unintended consequences of rational purposive action must be factored in when seeking to explain or predict economic behavior. Drawing upon a wealth of examples, Portes identifies three strategic sites of research--the informal economy, ethnic enclaves, and transnational communities--and he eschews grand narratives in favor of mid-range theories that help us understand specific kinds of social action. The book shows how the meta-assumptions of economic sociology can be transformed, under certain conditions, into testable propositions, and puts forward a theoretical agenda aimed at moving the field out of its present impasse.
E-Book Content
Economic Sociology
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Economic Sociology a systematic inquiry Alejandro Portes
princeton university press princeton and oxford
Copyright © 2010 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Portes, Alejandro, 1944– ╇ Economic sociology : a systematic inquiry / Alejandro Portes. â•…â•…â•… p. cm. ╇ Includes bibliographical references and index. ╇ ISBN 978-0-691-14222-7 (cl. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-691-14223-4 ╇ (pbk. : alk. paper)╇ 1. Economics—Sociological aspects.â•… I. Title. ╇ HM548.P67 2010 ╇ 306.3—dc22â•…â•… 2009043506 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in Sabon Printed on acid-free paper. ¥ press.princeton.edu Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the memory of my father
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables
ix
Preface
xi
Chapter One Economic Sociology: Past Achievements and Present Challenges
1
Chapter Two The Assumptions That Ground the Field
10
Chapter Three Social Capital
27
Chapter Four The Concept of Institutions
48
Chapter Five The Concept of Social Class
71
Chapter Six Social Class (Continued)
101
Chapter Seven The Informal Economy
130
Chapter Eight Ethnic Enclaves and Middleman Minorities
162
Chapter Nine Transnational Communities
195
Chapter Ten Markets, Models, and Regulation
220
Notes
237
Bibliography
261
Index
291
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Figures and Tables
Figures 2.1.╇Linear Purposive Action and Alternative Behavioral Patterns 20 3.1.╇Social Capital and Unexpected Consequences in Economic Organizations 27 3.2.╇Social Capital and Working-Class Mobilization 28 3.3.╇Sources and Effects of Social Capital 34 3.4.╇Types of Relationships in Dense vs. Dispersed Communities 46 4.1.╇Elements of Social Life 54 4.2.╇Participatory Demo