Book Description
This book systematically reconstructs the origins and new advances in economic sociology. By presenting both classical and contemporary theory and research, this book identifies and describes the continuity between past and present, and the move from economics to economic sociology.Economic Sociology begins with the classic writings by Simmel, Sombart, Weber, Durkheim, Veblen, Polanyi, and Schempeter, and highlights how these writings contributed to developing a theory of economic action as socially oriented action. The book then examines the social consequences of capitalism up to the present, including discussions about modernization and the welfare state.The volume is an historical introduction that illustrates how economic sociology has contributed to the understanding of the origins and characteristics of capitalism in the West, liberal capitalism, and the more highly regulated and organized capitalism which has come into being since the thirties.Economic Sociology presents the methodology and research themes accessibly, and each part is organized and presented so that it may be read as a single unit, according to students' specific needs. This is an excellent introduction to the field.
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- No more than programmatic remark
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Economy and Society
Bob Holton
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback
 General
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ASIN: 0415029104 |
Book Description
Why is economic analysis too important and too complex to be left to economists alone? br br b /b b i Economy and Society /i /b is a major landmark in the recent emergence of economic sociology. Robert Holton provides a major new synthesis of social scientific thinking on the interrelationship between economy and society. He argues for the importance of politics and culture to the functioning of the economy and draws on the strengths, but avoids the weaknesses of economic liberalism and political economy.
Customer Reviews:
No more than programmatic remark.......2002-07-10
...The author seems to intend to be read in the second way. The aim of this book is to explain the relationship between economy and society: so called the problem of embeddedness. In the early 1990s, the functionalist view was taken to found that concept in the circle of sociology. In other word, the social factor in economy was captured as culture in the functionalist meaning. This approach has not much problem for the functionalist definition of culture can be read as routine, and can be translated into the term of ¡®institution¡¯ in the line of institutional economics. In doing so, the author reviews various lines in sociological tradition, Marx, Weber, Durkheim and so forth and recent developments in the theory of the state.
But the problem is this: Is this book effective till now? I don¡¯t think so. Nobody argues the conception of embeddedness is problematic. It¡¯s now the established concept. Moreover, embeddedness is no more than a programmatic remark. Now institutionalism prevails over social sciences. What is needed now is a set of vocabulary to analyze the phenomena: for example, the buzzword like social capital.
Book Description
During the past four decades, the field of development has been dominated by three schools of research. The 1950s saw the modernization school, the 1960s experienced the dependency school, the 1970s developed the new world-system school, and the 1980s is a convergence of all three schools. Alvin Y. So examines the dynamic nature of these schools of development--what each of them represents, their contributions, how they have criticized each other, how they have defended themselves, and how they were transformed. He reviews a variety of empirical studies, focusing on the "classical" and the "new" models, to show how each of the perspectives affects the study of development. In addition, this book features a unique emphasis on the research implications of the three perspectives, involving changes in orientation, agenda, methodology, and findings. Social Change and Development is the first study that compares the strengths and weaknesses of the three schools of development in a thorough, comprehensive manner. It will be of great interest to students and professionals in urban studies, development studies, political science and comparative politics. "Highly recommended." --Development Update "The book is valuable both to the beginners as well as the serious student of development ." -Indian Journal of Public Administration "The book will fill a needed niche, and better than anything heretofore." --Immanuel Wallerstein, SUNY, Binghamton "[The] book is a remarkable piece of work and will, I am sure, be of great service to many teachers and students in a number of fields." --Winston Davis, Southwestern University "Professor So has provided students of development with an excellent review of three major theories of development. He skillfully meets his goals of providing a sympathetic presentation of early expressions of each theory, reviewing major criticisms, and then presenting recent expressions of each theory that have taken criticisms into account. The use of extensive reviews of a few studies within each theory provides students with a clear image of the character of the theory, and more importantly an image of the link between theoretical development and social research. The book avoids unfair caricature of theories and research, and provides a solid basis for further study and research on issues of development." --Robert Fiala, University of New Mexico "The author has succeeded in objectively delineating each theoretical perspective so that the reader is not encumbered with attempting to separate academic theory from political ideology. This is no minor achievement and the author is to be applauded for both his efforts and his achievement of this task. . . . The book will be fascinating reading for anyone interested in the historical and contemporary functioning of nation-states and their interdependency." --Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling "I would like to pass along my compliments on So's new volume. The writing is exceptionally clear and the presentations superb." --Marc W. Steinberg, University of Michigan "A useful analysis of the major development theories. . . . A good text for students and teachers and the only study to address the research implications of the three development theories in a comprehensive fashion." --Development Bookshelf "An exceptionally useful book. . . . So's command of the relevant literature and ability to explain complex material, as well as his even-handed (even sympathetic) treatments of three quite different (and often antagonistic) schools, makes this stimulating book useful for a variety of audiences: scholars interested in problems of Third-World development, specialists in modern world history, and even advanced undergraduates ready to tackle problems of theory." --Journal of World History "Alvin So does a thorough job of presenting three ways to understand development. . . . The writing is clear and the territory covered is vast. The result is an impressive survey." --Contemporary Sociology "Alvin So does a thorough job of presenting three ways to understand development....So provides valuable extended summaries of early and later formulations within each perspective. The writing is clear and the territory covered is vast. The result is an impressive survey, with two main audiences: advanced undergraduates and graduate students interested in a manageable overview of the field, and scholars in other fields who are interested but prefer not to retrace every step of these long and complex debates through the original texts....the book is generally balanced which is no small accomplishment." --Industrial and Labor Relations Review "Fills a gap in the social science literature in the field of development. . .useful not only for students but for faculty members teaching different courses in sociology, history, and political science. It may also be of interest to a wide and diverse non-professional audience wanting to know more of the past and contemporary research carried out by the three schools." --International Journal of Comparative Sociology
Customer Reviews:
Social Change and Development: Modernization, Dependency and World-System Theories (SAGE Library of Social Research).......2007-02-11
It's an easy reference book for the understanding of development theory. It contains the three main currents of development theory including modernization theory, dependency theory and world-system theory. The book is well structured in ideas and eash to read. For those who are interested in the development theory, this book is a good choice.
Never Understood Theory So Well.......2005-10-25
Alvin So's book is the only time I ever read a book about theory and on the first time through the sentence I said "Oh! That's what that's all about!" It's sad but true that most theory books are so full of garbage-- unneeded words, grammatically convoluted sentences that go nowhere-- that you end up more confused than enlightened.
Twenty or so years of teaching at the University of Hawaii if I am not mistaken allowed So to practice again and again explaining theory to students until he'd figured out how to do it right, I only wish he'd written a book on all the other theories as well!
dry as dust but oh, so clear.......2004-07-22
This is clearly a textbook, as the publisher's writeup notes, so don't go looking for a ripping insider tell-all. That said, it's a good, solid textbook in true academic fashion: clearly laid out, systematic in structure and specific in definitions. Absolutely a dream to take notes from.
It's also a needed change that, instead of hopping around references to different theories based on politics or country, the author breaks the text into three blocks - one per major theoretical school - and lines them up chronologically by era of popularity. This of course gets a bit muddy by the end as the field in general starts to look like a free-for-all to find what works, but overall the text is blessedly clear after so much rhetoric.
An Articulate and thorough account of Development Studies.......1998-04-07
Dr. So's comparison of the three major schools of thought in Development Studies, namely Modernization, Dependency, and World Systems, is the best book of its kind currently available. While it lacks the breadth of _Society, State, and Market_ by John Martinussen, it makes up for it in the depth of its analysis. Using A limited numer of theorists, Dr. So presents a comprehensive picture of each of the schools of thought in a historical perspective. He outlines the historical and intellectual origins of each, then discusses the theory itself, follows with an examination of the classical studies in each school, and concludes with the modern studies from that intellectual tradition. If supplemented with another, broader work, this book is a perfect introduction into a daunting field that often defies understanding.
Book Description
Capitalism has never been a subject for economists alone. Philosophers, politicians, poets and social scientists have debated the cultural, moral, and political effects of capitalism for centuries, and their claims have been many and diverse.
The Mind and the Market is a remarkable history of how the idea of capitalism has developed in Western thought.
Ranging across an ideological spectrum that includes Hobbes, Voltaire, Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Hegel, Marx, and Matthew Arnold, as well as twentieth-century communist, fascist, and neoliberal intellectuals, historian Jerry Muller examines a fascinating thread of ideas about the ramifications of capitalism and its future implications. This is an engaging and accessible history of ideas that reverberate throughout everyday life.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2006-02-24
This book is an amazing book and goes through and discusses exactly what many of the previous economic philosophers believe. Muller writes this wonderfully, and is typically an easy read. I wouldn't mind reading this book for fun actually.
Incredible!.......2005-08-12
The world of capitalism is presented to us through the eyes of the greatest European thinkers. Muller examines the relationship between the individual and the state though the prism of the marketplace tapping into the writings from thinkers such as Adam Smith, Marx, Voltaire, Schumpeter and Hayek. The depth and breath of this economic treatise on the marketplace presents perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum while taking the time and care to place that thinker's perspective within its proper historical context.
The thinkers that are tapped into come from a very broad swath of history. Their perspectives trace how western civilization left the feudal period where commerce and finance where frowned upon as immoral or dirty and how Europe eventually developed market-based institutions that we are so familiar with today. This book clearly shows how thinking men viewed the development of markets and how societies dealt with the social and moral benefits and costs of markets. Muller also describes how different societies in different time periods came to different conclusions on how a market should be regulated and managed as a result of the efforts of these great thinkers.
The way we operate today is linked inextricably to the past. Market-based societies are a product of western European history and culture. The answer to why things are like today can be found in the past and Mueller provides the key.
A suberb intellectual history of Western economic theories.......2005-05-29
"The Mind and the Market" is certainly a rare bird: a 400-page tract of intellectual history that manages to be lucid and fascinating, informative and persuasive. It is not a historical chronicle per se; instead it is a chronological sampling of biographical profiles of major and minor thinkers and how they viewed, with admiration and mistrust, capitalism and the "free market."
Muller examines the careers and thoughts of thinkers from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries (from Adam Smith to Karl Marx), as well as more recent writers (such as George Lukacs and Friedrich Hayek) and lesser known intellectuals (Hans Freyer and Werner Sombart). An intriguing subplot of sorts that runs through these chapters is the societal and academic view of the role of Jewish populations in the development of the market; such views, even among the best thinkers (with few exceptions), tended to be harsh and simplistic. Muller's book does not in any way pretend to be comprehensive--he admits in the introduction that the authors under discussion "are drawn disproportionately from German-speaking Europe"--but this tighter focus allows for a better, more coherent narrative.
"The Mind and the Market" is at its best when it sticks to intellectual history; when Muller turns to economic history, however, he occasionally falters (or, more accurately, his discussion is nakedly incomplete). In his largely unimpeachable comments on Marx's myopia, for example, he counters that capitalist development in the late nineteenth century lead to better working and living conditions in England, as well as "improved standards of health and safety in one industry after another." Such a description of the standard of living is true, but "capitalist development" is only half the story and even that story applies to only to the island and not the empire. The British Isles also benefited from colonialism: unprecedented wealth entered the country at the same time that significant chunks of its labor supply shipped overseas to jobs in civil service and the military--often never to return (60,000 died in the Crimean War alone).
Similarly, Muller notes correctly that Hayek's economic theories have gained much prominence during the last three decades, but his arguments for their exoneration is a bit one-sided. He notes the deregulation and tax reduction in the United States during the 1980s but fails to admit the un-Hayek escalation in government spending (at both the federal and state levels) and in budget deficits.
Fortunately for the reader, however, such details, which comprise only small portions of the book, are beyond its scope and in no way compromise the integrity of Muller's discussion of these great thinkers. Taken as a whole, "The Mind and Market" amply displays the love-hate relationship between philosophers and capitalism and how that relationship has evolved during the last two centuries.
Good, but not exactly what I was looking for.......2005-02-20
Being interested in the topic made the book very helpful. But I was a bit disapointed with his obvious slant towards a free-market. Though I think he does a good job presenting arguments against capitalism and the free-market, he doesn't leave the arguments alone. For example, on Marx, he takes the time to make a critique that he does not make of other authors. Is this because he doesn't want his readers to be persuaded by Marx? That is my imperssion. Still, I found the book intersting and his treatment on Marcuse compelling.
But I was looking for a book that was not approching economics from a free-market perspective. I was unsure of his position when buying the book. The other reviews I read gave me the impression that he was somehow un-biased (not that I thought anyone can be un-biased) or maybe even left leaning. But just so you know, I would say he is not left leaning, at least not in a Marxist sense. If you are looking for a Marxist critique of Capitalism, which I was, this isn't necesarily the book for you. But, it does put the whole discussion in a nice frame and presents the Marxists and anit-capitalists in a fair light. I enjoyed it from cover to cover.
It was a good book for me at the time and I would recomend it to anyone interested in the topic.
Who knew capitalism could be so fascinating??.......2004-12-29
Anyone who wants to be introduced to the richness of thought about capitalism in an enjoyable & accessible fashion should read this book!
I recommend it to all introductory economics professors seeking to spark their students' interest in the dismal science.
Book Description
With the NASDAQ having lost 70 percent of its value, the giddy, optimistic belief in perpetual growth that accompanied the economic boom of the 1990s had fizzled by 2002. Yet the advances in information and communication technology, management and production techniques, and global integration that spurred the âNew Economyâ of the 1990s had triggered profound and lasting changes. Frontiers of Capital brings together ethnographies exploring how cultural practices and social relations have been altered by the radical economic and technological innovations of the New Economy. The contributors, most of whom are anthropologists, investigate changes in the practices and interactions of futures traders, Chinese entrepreneurs, residents of French housing projects, women working on Wall Street, cable television programmers, and others.
Some contributors highlight how expedited flows of information allow business professionals to develop new knowledge practices. They analyze dynamics ranging from the decision-making processes of the Federal Reserve Board to the legal maneuvering necessary to buttress a nascent Japanese market in over-the-counter derivatives. Others focus on the social consequences of globalization and new modes of communication, evaluating the introduction of new information technologies into African communities and the collaborative practices of open-source computer programmers. Together the essays suggest that social relations, rather than becoming less relevant in the high-tech age, have become more important than ever. This finding dovetails with the thinking of many corporations, which increasingly employ anthropologists to study and explain the âlocalâ cultural practices of their own workers and consumers. Frontiers of Capital signals the wide-ranging role of anthropology in explaining the social and cultural contours of the New Economy.
Contributors. Jean Comaroff, John L. Comaroff, Greg Downey, Melissa S. Fisher, Douglas R. Holmes, George E. Marcus, Siobhán O’Mahony, Aihwa Ong, Annelise Riles, Saskia Sassen, Paul A. Silverstein, AbdouMaliq Simone, Neil Smith, Caitlin Zaloom
Customer Reviews:
Terrific ethnographic work on a much ignored region.......1998-11-06
Do not let the stale title fool you here. Foley employs some wonderful ethnographic, qualitative research methods in this piece of work. Foley disobeys the old, archaic rules of the social sciences, in that he leaves his objectivitiy behind and immerses himself into the city of North Town (a mythical name). Texas is much more than Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The author shows us another side of the state. Foley focuses on the South Texas region and its much too often ignored Mexican American population. Many people do not realize the old, colonized treatment that Mexican Americans are still subjugated to and Foley makes a point of writing about this in his text. In addition to being an ethnographic account of the socially inequities that exist between the dominant Anglo population and the subordinate Mexican American population in North Town, this book is also an analysis and critique of an educational system. Foley demonstrates how the educational system in North Town perpetuates inequality and tracks its young people to take their assigned role in society according to their socioeconomic status and their ethnic background. Learning Capitalist Culture is a book for those not only interested in the social sciences, but those of us interested in research techniques and methodological approaches that are new, exciting, and part of a new kind of social science model.
Very Good.......1998-09-27
Doug Foley wrote a very food account of a small town in this book. It is an ethnographic, and fuliflls that part. Mostyl the book discusess the race relation of the poor town, and delves into the politics that make such a racial divide possible. I highly recommend it!
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Culture, Capitalism, and Democracy in the New America
Richard Harvey Brown
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Labor & Industrial Relations
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ASIN: 0300100256 |
Book Description
The United States is in transit from an industrial to a postindustrial society, from a modern to postmodern culture, and from a national to a global economy. In this book Richard Harvey Brown asks how we can distinguish the uniquely American elements of these changes from more global influences. His answer focuses on the ways in which economic imperatives give shape to the shifting experience of being American.
Drawing on a wide knowledge of American history and literature, the latest social science, and contemporary social issues, Brown investigates continuity and change in American race relations, politics, religion, conception of selfhood, families, and the arts. He paints a vivid picture of contemporary America, showing how postmodernism is perceived and felt by individuals and focusing attention on the strengths and limitations of American democracy.
Book Description
It is easy to mistake the United States for an empire. But as John D. Kelly explains here, the American approach to global relations is best understood as a competition—one in which the United States, through the reshaping of economic theory and the global economy itself, imposes its own rules on a game played to win. How and where the United States implements these rules can be tracked through complexities in diplomacy and business. But Kelly here cleverly uses the quintessential American game of baseball to show how the United States maintains and advances its dominance over other nations. A thought-provoking read, The American Game could well revolutionize our understanding of the United States’ influence on global politics and economics.
Customer Reviews:
womderful.......2003-04-19
A very important book ,a real critic to Eurocentrism
It gives a meaning to all struggles all over the world to make a new humanitarian society
An Antidote to Conventional Theories of World History.......1999-12-15
Why did Western Europe achieve an industrial revolution and not China? Why did Western Europe achieve a scientific revolution while the Islamic World failed to do so? Conventional theories, from Adam Smith to modern authors such as David Landes and Eric Jones, concentrate on the innate cultural superiority of the West. Amin, on the other hand, takes a more global, and in my view, more accurate view. In Amin's view, the transition from tribal societies to agricultural "world empires", and then to industrial capitalism was a "global relay race" in which Western Europe was simply "the last runner". Amin traces the economic, political and cultural aspects of the transitions from tribal societies, to world empires (Amin's term is "tributory form"), to industrial capitalism and the modern nation state. This book is the best brief exposition of global history that I have seen.
Book Description
The last several decades have witnessed major restructurings—economic, political, and cultural—in the international arena. The depth and scope of these changes have prompted anthropologists to rethink many of their most basic assumptions, to problematize issues that have long gone unexamined, and to grapple with new and unique problems. Doing so has left the discipline profoundly unsettled. Existing standards of scholarship and research methodologies have come under attack, key conceptual categories have been called into question, and truths once considered secure have been subjected to severe scrutiny and even ridicule.
Seizing upon the opportunity afforded by the contemporary conjuncture of disciplinary crisis and redefinition, this book raises questions about two interrelated aspects of historical process and academic production. The volume contributes to ongoing debates about the degree to which the developments of recent decades represent the advent of a new historical era, a rupture with the past that requires new conceptualizations and logics in order to be understood. In confronting this question, the contributors to this volume have assembled a range of materials that place the present period of reconstruction in the context of a broader history and geography of other, related restructurings.
Locating Capitalism in Time and Space also raises questions about the degree to which the scholarship of recent decades represents a qualitative break with that of the past. At issue here is whether one understands the history of academic production as a linear process of intellectual growth punctuated by major breakthroughs in understanding, or as a political process structured by the same kinds of inequalities and struggles that characterize the social worlds that are the object of anthropological analysis.
Books:
- Eisenhower
- Epicenter: Why Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future
- Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
- Giants in Their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade (Great Lakes Connections: The Civil War)
- Global Strategy (with World Map and InfoTrac )
- Global Strategy (with World Map and InfoTrac )
- Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
- Hartmann Schedel: Nuremberg Chronicle (Taschen Jumbo Series)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
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Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions
Rethinking Commodification: Cases and Readings in Law and Culture (Critical America)
The Economic Sociology of Capitalism
Categorically Unequal: The American Stratification System
The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism
