Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 April 2005
Since the early or mid-1980s important changes have taken place in economic sociology. New topics have been added to its agenda, and interesting advances have been made in analyzing problems that were initiated during the 1980s when “new economic sociology” was born. As to theory, it appears that the embeddedness approach is still the most popular approach – but it is also increasingly criticized and a few other theoretical alternatives exist today. The three topics of networks, markets and firms continue to be central, and some important advances have been made during the last decade. New topics include finance, law, stratification and comparative-historical studies. New economic sociology is still suspicious of mainstream economics but has good relations with the other social sciences as well as with other subfields in sociology. If there is one weakness to recent economic sociology, the article concludes, it is the lack of new ideas. Economic sociology still lives very much on the ideas from the 1980s, which is worrisome.
La sociologie économique a connu des changements importants depuis le milieu des années 1980, tant en ce qui concerne ses champs d'intérêt que les avancées réalisées par “ la nouvelle sociologie économique ”. Sur le plan théorique l'approche par les interrelations reste dominante, mais on dénote plusieurs théories alternatives. S'agissant des domaines, si réseaux, marchés et firmes restent centraux, on voit se développer des travaux sur la finance, le droit, la stratification ainsi que des études historiques comparatives. Toujours quelque peu suspecte pour les économistes du courant dominant, la nouvelle sociologie économique a de bonnes relations avec les autres sciences sociales. Sa faiblesse est de ne pas avoir introduit beaucoup d'idées nouvelles depuis 1980.
Zu Beginn der 1980er Jahre hat die Wirtschaftssoziologie entscheidende Veränderungen erfahren. Neue Themenbereiche sind hinzugekommen und interessante Fortschritte sind bei den für die 80er Jahre typischen Problemen gemacht worden, dem Entstehungszeitpunkt der neuen Wirtschaftssoziologie. Was die Theorie anbelangt, scheint der Beziehungsansatz noch immer dominierend – wenngleich er vermehrt kritisiert wird —, erweitert durch einige andere theoretische Alternativen. Zentrale Themen sind Netzwerke, Märkte und Unternehmen, wobei zunehmend die Finanzen, Recht, Stratifikation und vergleichende Geschichtswissenschaft an Aufmerksamkeit gewinnen. Die Wirtschaftswissenschaften belächeln noch immer die Wirtschaftssoziologie, wobei letztere aber über gute Kontakte mit den Sozialwissenschaften und anderen Bereichen der Soziologie verfügt. Hauptmanko der Wirtschaftssoziologie ist vielmehr, dass sie noch immer mit dem Gedankengut der 80er Jahre arbeitet.
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