Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry

Description

Examines economic sociology's principal assumptions, key explanatory concepts, and selected research sites. The author 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.

Alejandro Portes is the Howard Harrison and Gabrielle Snyder Beck Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. His books include "Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation".

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010 "A pioneer in economic sociology, Portes presents one of the best systematic efforts in the burgeoning attempt to bring sociological inquiry to economic studies. Though economic sociologists are more than likely to be already familiar with Portes's work, the author's emphasis on theory accumulation, or 'usable theory,' as proposed by Dietrich Rueschemeyer, makes this book exceptional... An exemplary combination of theoretical sophistication and methodological rigor, Portes's book is a must read for all economic sociologists."--Choice "Portes has written a fine book that presents a good case for the sociological perspective of economic processes and outcomes."--Eric Cheney, Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare "[T]he book can be fruitfully used as student's handbook to teach economic sociology, comparative political economy and sociology of development."--Filippo Barbera, Sociologica "I would ... recommend Portesian sociology to anyone needing an intelligent, lucid and thought-provoking vision of what 'middle range' theory might offer economic sociology beyond the preoccupation with 'embeddedness.'"--Patrick McGovern, British Journal of Sociology "Economic Sociology represents a positive step away from the assumptions about formal rationality and maximizing of subjective utility dominant in certain social science areas influenced by mainstream economics, and widens the scope for future research on the interaction between social forces and economic processes."--Rafael Khachaturian, Science and Society