PRINCETON UNIVERSITY SOCIOLOGY 541: ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY SOCIAL TIES, CULTURE, AND ECONOMIC PROCESSES. Fall 2010 Wednesdays 11 AM-2PM Wallace Hall 190

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1 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY SOCIOLOGY 541: ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY SOCIAL TIES, CULTURE, AND ECONOMIC PROCESSES Fall 2010 Wednesdays 11 AM-2PM Wallace Hall 190 Professor Viviana Zelizer Telephone: ================================================================== = In compressed form, this six-week course provides an introduction to economic sociology seen not as a subordination of sociology to economics but as the sociological explanation of economic phenomena. As it has developed over the past twenty-five years, economic sociology has concentrated on two activities: first, the extension of economic models to social phenomena rarely examined by economists, and second, the study of contexts that constrain the operation of economic processes as usually understood by economists. In line with these two preoccupations, economic sociologists have focused on firms and markets. This course emphasizes a third activity, the search for alternative accounts of phenomena that most specialists have explained using economic concepts and theory. In particular, it seeks sociological explanations of production, consumption, and distribution. After a general orientation to economic sociology as a whole, the course explores economic activities in an unconventionally wide range of settings including households, informal sectors, gift economies, and consumption. The course culminates with the analysis of compensation systems as a point of confrontation between conventional and alternative accounts of economic phenomena. REQUIREMENTS: 1. Readings: (a) Required readings: All students must read in preparation for class discussion and reports, (b) Recommended readings identify valuable paths to and from the week's topic. Readings will be available in the Sociology Department mailroom. You should return them immediately after reading or photocopying. If you are able to download copies of some readings from the web, please feel free to do so. 2. Reports: Over the course of the six weeks each student prepares a total of three written reports. The first two reports consist of short critical essays concerning three or four of the current week s readings, of no more than 1,000 words; we will work out student responsibilities for sessions and particular readings in class. These reports serve as a basis for class presentation and discussion; students should circulate their reports electronically to the class by no later than 5 PM the Monday preceding the class 1

2 session. Depending on class size, we may organize formal responses to these statements by other class members. The reports should focus on the following issues; a. what question is addressed by the author(s)? b. what is the significance of that question for key issues in the field? c. what are competing answers to that question? d. how well does the author address that question, in terms of logic and methodology? e. what would be a different, valid way of addressing the same question, preferably one you regard as superior? (Note: Depending on course enrollment we will modify the number and kind of assignments during our first session). The third report, also of no more than 1,000 words, is due on Wednesday November 10. It will take up one of the following three options: 1. A brief research proposal based on one of the seminar's subjects or another topic to be chosen in consultation with instructor. 2. A national tradition in economic sociology. 3. Intellectual biography of one of the course s authors. For topics 2 or 3 the report should include: a. an exposition of the tradition or author b. at least one illustration confirming your description c. a brief critique, indicating strengths and weaknesses d. a tentative explanation of this work's distinctive properties If possible, identify changes either in the work of the author or in the national tradition. 2

3 WEEK 1 (September 22) ANALYSES OF ECONOMIC PROCESSES Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg, "Introducing Economic Sociology," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp Viviana Zelizer, Pasts and Futures of Economic Sociology. American Behavioral Scientist, 50 (April 2007): Alejandro Portes, Economic Sociology. A Systematic Inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, chapters 1 and 2; pp. 1-26; chapter 7, pp Paul DiMaggio, "Culture and Economy," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp Brian Uzzi, Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness, Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa, and Lucia Siu. Introduction, in Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007, pp Nina Bandelj, The Global Economy as Instituted Process. American Sociological Review 74 (February 2009): Gary Becker, Accounting for Tastes. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996, chapter 7, "The Economic Way of Looking at Life." Michel Callon, The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics, in The Laws of the Markets, edited by Michel Callon. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998, pp Marion Fourcade-Gourinchas and Sarah Babb, Neoliberalism in Four Countries, American Journal of Sociology 108 (2002): Robert Gibbons, What is Economic Sociology and Should any Economists Care? The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (Winter 2005): 3-7. Mark Granovetter, The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes, The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (Winter 2005): Paul Ingram and Peter W. Roberts, Friendships among Competitors in the Sydney Hotel Industry, American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): Greta Krippner and Anthony S. Alvarez, Embeddedness and the Intellectual Projects of Economic Sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 33(2007): Peter Levin, Culture and Markets: How Economic Sociology Conceptualizes Culture, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 619 (2008):

4 WEEK 2 (September 29) VARIETIES OF ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy, Moral Views of Market Society, Annual Review of Sociology 33 (2007): Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, Work Under Capitalism. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1998, chapter 1, How To Work Things Out," pp. 1-20; chapter 2, "Worlds of Work," pp Charles Smith, "Auctions: From Walras to the Real World," in Explorations in Economic Sociology, edited by Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993, pp Paula England and Nancy Folbre, Gender and Economic Sociology, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp Nicole Woolsey Biggart, and Rick Delbridge, Systems of Exchange, Academy of Management Review 29 (2004): Viviana Zelizer, Circuits in Economic Life, European Economic Sociology Newsletter 1: November 2006: Viviana Zelizer, Money, Power, and Sex, 18 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 303 (2006). Mitchel Y. Abolafia, Making Markets. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996, Introduction and chapter 1, "Homo Economicus Unbound: Bond Traders on Wall Street." Nicole Woolsey Biggart, Banking on Each Other: The Situational Logic of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations, Advances in Qualitative Organization Research (2001) 3: Asaf Darr, Gifting Practices and Interorganizational Relations: Constructing Obligation Networks in the Electronics Sector. Sociological Forum 18 (2003): Paul Ingram and Xi Zou, Business Friendships, Research in Organizational Behavior 28 (2008): Alya Guseva, and Akos Rona-Tas, Uncertainty, Risk, and Trust: Russian and American Credit Card Markets Compared, American Sociological Review 66 (2001): Kieran Healy, Organizational Altruism: The Case of Organ Procurement, American Sociological Review 69 (2004): Karin Knorr Cetina and Urs Bruegger, "Global Microstructures: The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets," American Journal of Sociology 107 (2002): Michèle de La Pradelle, Market Day in Provence, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, Laurel Smith-Doerr and Woody Powell, Networks and Economic Life, in The Handbook of Economic 4

5 Sociology, 2d edition, 2005, pp WEEK 3 (October 6) TRANSACTION MEDIA Viviana Zelizer, "Sociology of Money," in Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, editors, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 15: Amsterdam: Elsevier, Kieran Healy, Last Best Gifts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, chapter 1 Exchange in Human Goods, and chapter 6, Managing Gifts, Making Markets. Eric Helleiner, "One Market, One People? The Euro and Political Identities, in Before and Beyond the Euro, edited by P. Crowley. London: Routledge, 2002, pp Caroline Humphrey, Icebergs, Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia. Anthropology Today 7 (April 1991): Richard H. Thaler, Mental Accounting Matters, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 12 (1999): Loïc Wacquant, A fleshpeddler at work: Power, pain, and profit in the prizefighting economy, Theory and Society 27 (1998): Yochai Benkler and Helen Nissenbaum, Commons-Based Peer Production and Virtue, The Journal of Political Philosophy 14 (2006): Bruce G. Carruthers, The Sociology of Money and Credit, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp Nigel Dodd, Reinventing Monies in Europe, Economy and Society 34 (2005): Martha M. Ertman, What s Wrong with a Parenthood Market? A New and Improved Theory of Commodification, 82 North Carolina Law Review 1 (2003). Elizabeth M. Landes and Richard A. Posner, "The Economics of the Baby Shortage," Journal of Legal Studies 7(1978): Alena V. Ledeneva, Blat and Guanxi: Informal Practices in Russia and China, Comparative Studies in Society and History 50 (2008): Jonathan Parry, and Maurice Bloch, Money and the Morality of Exchange, pp in Money & The Morality of Exchange, edited by J. Parry and M. Bloch. New York: Cambridge University Press, David Woodruff, Money Unmade: Barter and the Fate of Russian Capitalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Viviana Zelizer and Charles Tilly, Relations and Categories. In Arthur Markman and Brian Ross, editors, The Psychology of Learning and Motivation 47. (San Diego, CA: Elsevier, 2006): pp

6 WEEK 4 (October 13) HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY Michael Bittman, Paula England, Nancy Folbre, and George Matheson, When does Gender Trump Money? Bargaining and Time in Household Work, American Journal of Sociology 109 (2003): Mary Blair-Loy, Cultural Constructions of Family Schemas: The Case of Women Finance Executives, Gender & Society 15 (October 2001): Sheba Mariam George, When Women Come First. Gender and Class in Transnational Migration. Berkeley: University of California Press, introduction (pp. 1-18), and chapter 3, Home: Redoing Gender in Immigrant Households. Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein, Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997, chapter 1 and chapter 6, "Survival Strategies." Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and Ernestine Avila, I m Here, but I m There, in Families at Work: Expanding the Bounds, edited by Naomi Gerstel et al. Nashville, TC: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002, pp Viviana Zelizer, The Purchase of Intimacy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, prologue and chapter 5, Household Commerce. Robert C. Ellickson, The Household. Informal Order Around the Hearth, chapters 1, How Households Differ from Families, and 8, Order Without Law in an Ongoing Household. Princeton: Princeton University Press, Christopher Carrington, No Place Like Home. Relationships and Family Life among Lesbians and Gay Men, pp. 3-28; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Arlie R. Hochschild, "The Economy of Gratitude," in The Sociology of Emotions: Original Essays and Research Papers, edited by Thomas Hood. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, 1989, pp Catherine Kenney, Cohabiting Couple, Filing Jointly? Resource Pooling and U.S. Poverty Policies. Family Relations (2004) 53: Joanna Dreby, Divided by Borders. Mexican Migrants and Their Children, chapter 6, Middlewomen, pp Emir Loy and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Latino Immigrant Street Vendor Youth in Los Angeles: Markets of Shame and Pride, draft. Mary Blair-Loy and Jerry A. Jacobs, Globalization, Work Hours, and the Care Deficit Among Stockbrokers, Gender & Society, 2003, 17, pp

7 W. Bradford Wilcox, Soft Patriarchs, New Men. How Christianity Shapes Fathers and Husbands. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004, chapter 5, Domestic Rites and Enchanted Relations: Religion, Ideology, and Household Labor, pp WEEK 5 (October 20) CONSUMPTION Guest Discussant: Michaela De Soucey, PostDoctoral Fellow, Center for the Study of Social Organization. George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of America. Thousand Oaks, California: Pine Forge, 2004, chapter 1, "An Introduction to McDonaldization," pp James L. Watson, Transnationalism, Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia, in Golden Arches East: McDonald s In East Asia, edited by James L. Watson. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2d.edition, 2006, pp. 1-38; Michaela DeSoucey, Gastronationalism: Food Traditions and Authenticity Politics in the European Union. American Sociological Review 75 (2010): Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984, Introduction, pp Daniel Miller, A Theory of Shopping, introduction and chapter 1 Making Love in Supermarkets, pp Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Paul DiMaggio and Hugh Louch, Socially Embedded Consumer Transactions: For What Kinds of Purchases do People Use Networks Most? American Sociological Review, 63 (1998): Roberto Garvía, Syndication, Institutionalization, and Lottery Play, American Journal of Sociology 113 (2007): Viviana Zelizer, Culture and Consumption, in Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press and New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2005, pp Lizabeth Cohen, From Town Center to Shopping Center; The Reconfiguration of Community Marketplaces in Postwar America. The American Historical Review 101 (1996): Rachel Sherman, Class Acts. Service and Inequality in Luxury Hotels. Berkeley: University of California Press, Deborah S. Davis and Julia S. Sensenbrenner, Commercializing Childhood: Parental Purchases for Shanghai s Only Child, pp in The Consumer Revolution in Urban China, edited by Deborah S. Davis. Berkeley: University of California Press, Robert Wuthnow, Poor Richard's Principles. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996, chapter 7, "Getting and Spending." Christine Williams, Inside Toyland. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006, chapter 5, Kids in Toyland. 7

8 Frederick F. Wherry, The Social Characterizations of Price: The Fool, the Faithful, the Frivolous, and the Frugal. Sociological Theory 26: Mariane Bertrand, Sendhil Mullainathan, Eldar Shafir, Behavioral Economics and Marketing in Aid of Decision Making Among the Poor, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing 25 (2006): WEEK 6 (October 27) COMPENSATION Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, Work Under Capitalism, chapter 10, "Inequality at Work: Wages and Promotion," pp Alice Kessler-Harris, A Woman's Wage. Louisville: University of Kentucky Press, 1990, Introduction and chapter 1, "The Wage Conceived." Peter Bearman, Doormen, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2005, Preface, pp. ix-xii; chapter 6, pp , The Bonus. Calvin Morrill, Conflict Management, Honor, and Organizational Change, American Journal of Sociology 97 (November 1991): David Stark, with János Lukács, "Work, Worth, and Justice in a Socialist Factory," in The Sense of Dissonance: Accounts of Worth in Economic Life, Princeton University Press, 2009, pp Brian Uzzi and Ryon Lancaster, Embeddedness and Price Formation in the Corporate Law Market, American Sociological Review 69 (2004): Anteby, Michel The Moralities of Poaching: Manufacturing Personal Artifacts on Factory Floors. Ethnography 4: George A. Akerlof, "Labor Contracts as Partial Gift Exchange," Quarterly Journal of Economics 97 (November 1982): William T. Bielby, and Denise D. Bielby, Telling Stories About Gender and Effort: Social Science Narratives About Who Works Hard for the Money, in Mauro F. Guillén, Randall Collins, Paula England, and Marshall Meyer, editors, The New Economic Sociology: Developments in an Emerging Field. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002, pp Richard Biernacki, "Work and Culture in the Reception of Class Ideologies," in Reworking Class, edited by John R. Hall. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, pp Ron S. Burt, The Gender of Social Capital. Rationality and Society 10 (1998): Louise Roth, Selling Women Short: Gender and Money on Wall Street, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006, chapter 2, PP , Pay for Performance. Susan Rose-Ackerman, Bribes and gifts, pp in Economics, Values, and Organization, edited by Avner Ben-Ner and Louis Putterman. New York: Cambridge University Press,

9 Olav Velthuis, Symbolic Meanings of Prices: Constructing the Value of Contemporary Art in Amsterdam and New York Galleries. Theory and Society (2003) 32: Viviana Zelizer, Payments and Social Ties. Sociological Forum 11 (September 1996):