1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996211817303316

Autore

Beckert Jens <1967->

Titolo

Beyond the market [[electronic resource] ] : the social foundations of economic efficiency / / Jens Beckert ; translated by Barbara Harshav

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, : Princeton University Press, c2002

ISBN

1-282-08772-X

1-282-93531-3

9786612935312

9786612087721

1-4008-2544-X

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (376 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

HarshavBarbara

Disciplina

306.3/4

Soggetti

Decision making - Social aspects

Economics - Sociological aspects

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 -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE: CRITIQUE -- ONE. The Limits of the Rational-Actor Model as a Microfoundation of Economic Efficiency -- PART TWO: CONCEPTS -- TWO. Émile Durkheim: The Economy as Moral Order -- THREE. Talcott Parsons: The Economy as a Subsystem of Society -- FOUR. Niklas Luhmann: The Economy as a Autopoietic System -- FIVE. Anthony Giddens: Actor and Structure in Economic Action -- PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS -- SIX. Perspectives for Economic Sociology -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

Beyond the Market launches a sociological investigation into economic efficiency. Prevailing economic theory, which explains efficiency using formalized rational choice models, often simplifies human behavior to the point of distortion. Jens Beckert finds such theory to be particularly weak in explaining such crucial forms of economic behavior as cooperation, innovation, and action under conditions of uncertainty--phenomena he identifies as the proper starting point for a sociology of economic action. Beckert levels an enlightened critique at neoclassical economics, arguing that understanding efficiency requires looking well



beyond the market to the social, cultural, political, and cognitive factors that influence the coordination of economic action. Beckert searches social theory for the components of an alternative theory of action, one that accounts for the social embedding of economic behavior. In Durkheim and Parsons he finds especially useful approaches to cooperation; in Luhmann, a way to understand how people act under highly contingent conditions; and in Giddens, an understanding of creative action and innovation. Together, these provide building blocks for a research program that will yield a theoretically sophisticated understanding of how economic processes are coordinated and the ways that markets are embedded in social, cultural, and cognitive structures. Containing one of the most fully informed critiques of the neoclassical analysis of economic efficiency--as well as one of the most thoughtful blueprints for economic sociology--this book reclaims for sociology the study of one of the most important arenas of human action.