Economic sociology a systematic inquiry - Portes, Alejandro (Princeton University Press, 2010)
Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-290) and index
Economic sociology : past achievements and present challenges -- The assumptions that ground the field -- Social capital -- The concept of institutions -- The concept of social class -- Social class (continued) -- The informal economy -- Ethnic enclaves and middleman minorities -- Transnational communities -- Markets, models, and regulation
The sociological study of economic activity has witnessed a significant resurgence. Recent texts have chronicled economic sociology's nineteenth-century origins while pointing to the importance of context and power in economic life, yet the field lacks a clear understanding of the role that concepts at different levels of abstraction play in its organization. Economic Sociology fills this critical gap by surveying the current state of the field while advancing a framework for further theoretical development. Alejandro Portes examines economic sociology's principal assumptions, key explanatory