The Sociology of Economic Life

This book incorporates classic and contemporary readings in economic sociology and related disciplines to provide students with a broad understanding of the many dimensions of economic life. It discusses Max Weber's key concepts in economics and sociology.

Introduction to the Third Edition -- Foundations of Economic Sociology -- The Economy as Instituted Process -- Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness -- The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes -- Max Weber's Central Text in Economic Sociology -- The Forms of Capital -- Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action -- The Sociology of Markets -- The Bazaar Economy: Information and Search in Peasant Marketing -- Human Values and the Market: The Case of Life Insurance and Death in 19th-Century America -- The Transformation of Morals in Markets: Death, Benefits, and the Exchange of Life Insurance Policies -- Economic and Sociological Approaches to Gender Inequality in Pay -- Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study -- Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness -- What Is Sociological About Banks and Banking? -- Constructing a Market, Performing a Theory: The Historical Sociology of a Financial Derivatives Exchange -- The Sociology of Firms and Industries -- Group Dynamics and Intergroup Relations -- Men Who Manage -- Bureaucratic and Craft Administration of Production: A Comparative Study -- Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems -- Inside-Out: Regional Networks and Industrial Adaptation in Silicon Valley and Route 128 -- Comparative and Historical Economic Sociology -- Weber's Last Theory of Capitalism: A Systematization -- Why the Economy Reflects the Polity: Early Rail Policy in Britain, France, and the United States -- E Pluribus Unum? Varieties and Commonalities of Capitalism -- Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism -- Developing Difference: Social Organization and the Rise of the Auto Industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina -- Transitions from State Socialism: A Property Rights Perspective