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Economic sociology studies how economic structures and exchanges influence society and vice versa. It examines subjects such as the role of religion in economic systems and how capitalism shapes people’s lives. Contemporary economic sociology emphasizes the social consequences and meaning of economic exchanges and their effects on other social relationships. Early economic sociology began as an outgrowth of philosophy and political economy. Max Weber and Karl Marx were influential figures in economic sociology during the 19th century. Herbert Spencer believed that the nature and structure of a society were strongly influenced by the main means by which wealth was obtained in a society.
The study of how economic structures and exchanges influence society and how society influences economic systems is called economic sociology. Economic sociologists study subjects such as the role of religion in the development of economic systems, how the division of labor affects social ties, and how capitalism and industrialization shape the way people live, among other subjects. Not to be confused with socioeconomics, although there is sometimes overlap between the two fields. Socioeconomics generally has a narrower focus than economic sociology and is the study of the social effects of specific economic events, such as a factory closure or a change in consumption patterns, rather than large-scale institutions. It should also not be confused with fields of economics that use economic principles to analyze social phenomena, such as the economics of religion, the economics of the family, or the cultural economy.
Contemporary economic sociology, often referred to as the new economic sociology to distinguish it from earlier work in the field during the 19th and 20th centuries, places great emphasis on the social consequences and meaning of economic exchanges and their effects on other social relationships. It also often emphasizes how economic activities take place within a network of other social ties and relationships, a concept called incorporation. Leading thinkers in this area include Harrison White and Mark Granovetter, a man whose work on the effects of the strength of social ties and the dissemination of information through social media helped spark the field’s resurgence.
Many important works in what is now considered early economic sociology predate the emergence of sociology as a specialized academic discipline, because the division of the social sciences into distinct fields such as sociology, economics, and psychology had not yet taken place in the early to mid-19th century. . century. Like sociology as a whole, early economic sociology began as an outgrowth of subjects such as philosophy and political economy. Economic sociology is often seen as beginning in the first half of the 19th century, although 18th-century figures such as Montesquieu are sometimes considered forerunners. Alexis de Tocqueville is often regarded as an important pioneer in the field, through works such as Democracy in America and The Ancien Regime and the Revolution.
The thinker most prominently associated with the application of sociology to economic systems is Max Weber, who worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Weber’s enormously influential book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, argued that Protestantism, and especially Calvinism, was an important factor in the rise of capitalism in northern Europe. According to Weber, Protestantism had an important effect on economic attitudes by emphasizing and praising the moral virtue of hard work and productivity in mundane and secular pursuits. At the same time, the loss of an absolute and reliable religious authority in the form of the Catholic Church created greater feelings of religious uncertainty which led people to seek success in worldly affairs through work and commerce as a sign of God’s blessing and approval. . In Weber’s theory, this encouraged productivity, rational self-interest, and entrepreneurship, thus creating an environment more conducive to the growth of capitalism.
Karl Marx was an extremely influential figure in economic sociology during the 19th century. Marx’s approach to the study of society, now commonly called historical materialism, treated economic factors as the basis of all social phenomena. In classical Marxist theory, a society’s “mode of production” – its technology, productive resources and economic relations – is the primary force that determines the nature of that society, including its social, cultural and legal institutions, and changes in that mode of production. that drives changes in other areas of society. Marx’s ideas would be an important influence on several important economic sociologists of the 20th century, such as Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse.
Another important economic sociologist was Herbert Spencer, who believed that the nature and structure of a society were strongly influenced by the main means by which wealth was obtained in a society. In what Spencer called “militant” societies, wealth was accumulated mainly by force and compulsion, usually by an elite that controlled the state. In “industrial” societies – with “industrial” used in the sense of work or productivity, rather than specifically referring to manufacturing – wealth was acquired primarily through labor and voluntary exchange. Spencer believed that societies that were primarily militant encouraged values such as militarism, hierarchy, and subordination, and more industrial societies evolved toward greater individuality, equality, and mutual sympathy between people. The extent to which a society is militant or industrial is a spectrum, not a binary division, and Spencer believed that as a society moves into a more industrial or more militant mode, its values and institutions will evolve in ways appropriate to it.
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