Economy/Society

Bruce Carruthers Ph.D. University of Chicago 1991. Areas of interest include historical and comparative sociology, economic sociology, sociology of law and sociology of organizations. Carruthers has written three books, City of Capital Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution (Princeton University, 1996), Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States (Oxford, 1998), and Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings and Social Structure (Pine Forge Press, 2000). His current research projects are on the evolution of credit decision-making as a problem in the sociology of trust, and worldwide changes in bankruptcy law in the era of a globalized world economy. He has had visiting fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He is methodologically agnostic, and does not believe that the qualitative/quantitative distinction is worth fighting over. Sarah Babb is a Professor of Sociology at Boston College. She specializes in the areas of Economic Sociology, Latin America, Political Sociology, Comparative and Historical Sociology, Organizations and Globalization. Her most recent book is Managing Mexico: Economists from Nationalism to Neoliberalism.

Carruthers and Babb present an excellent textbook both for those working in fields that transcend a simple view of Economics as an optimization science and to more orthodox economists interested in expand their mental maps of economic science. It debates how markets are embedded in societies and depend on social structures and institutions that frame their functioning. In this way, the authors show that markets are neither the only institution nor the most relevant one in economic order. The book, anchored in notions, such embeddedness and networks that are being developed in the scope of Economic Sociology, provides the understanding of the interconnections between economy and society, facilitating a deeper comprehension of organizations, finance, inequalities and development. It is a textbook that I will recommend to postgraduate students but also at undergraduate level in introductory disciples of Economics .

• Chapter 1: The Embeddedness of MarketsMarkets and Their AlternativesMarkets and Their PreconditionsThe Embeddedness of MarketsThe Consequences of MarketsThe Variety of CapitalismsGlobalizationOutline of the BookChapter 2: Marketing and the Meaning of ThingsThings and MeaningCommodities as GiftsConsumerismConsumers and DebtAdvertisingDiversity and ConsumerismConsumerism and GlobalizationConclusionChapter 3: Organizations and the EconomyThe Power of the BossOrganizations around the GlobeOrganizations and Internal Labor MarketsThe Organizational Context for ConflictWorkplace and Personal LifeThe Formation of an Organizational EconomyConclusionChapter 4: Networks in the EconomyWhat Is a Network?Why Networks MatterIndividual NetworksThe Importance of Networks in MarketsConclusionChapter 5: Banking and FinanceWhat Does a Financial System Do?Finance and DevelopmentRegulation and DeregulationDisintermediationInnovation and StatusHousehold FinanceGlobalization and FinanceConclusionChapter 6: Economic InequalityInequality in PerspectiveInequality and EfficiencyExplaining Recent Trends in Income InequalityGlobalizationRace, Gender, and InequalityGender in the Labor MarketRace in the Labor MarketRace, Mortgage Discrimination, and Wealth InequalityRace, Gender, and PriceConclusionChapter 7: Economic DevelopmentEconomic Development DefinedFrom The Wealth of Nations to the Washington ConsensusSociological Perspectives on DevelopmentConclusionChapter 8: Conclusion