1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910812805003321

Autore

Portes Alejandro <1944->

Titolo

Economic sociology : a systematic inquiry / / Alejandro Portes

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, NJ, : Princeton University Press, c2010

ISBN

1-282-64505-6

9786612645051

1-4008-3517-8

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (322 p.)

Classificazione

MS 4800

Disciplina

306.3

Soggetti

Economics - Sociological aspects

Sociology

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Preface -- Chapter one. Economic Sociology -- Chapter two The Assumptions That Ground the Field -- Chapter three. Social Capital -- Chapter four. The Concept of Institutions -- Chapter five. The Concept of Social Class -- Chapter six. Social Class (Continued) -- Chapter seven. The Informal Economy -- Chapter Eight. Ethnic Enclaves and Middleman Minorities -- Chapter nine. Transnational Communities -- Chapter ten. Markets, Models, and Regulation -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.