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Beyond the Market : The Social Foundations of Economic Efficiency / Jens Beckert.

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2009]Copyright date: ©2003Edition: Course BookDescription: 1 online resource (376 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691049076
  • 9781400825448
Subject(s): LOC classification:
  • HM548.B43613 2002
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE: CRITIQUE -- ONE. The Limits of the Rational-Actor Model as a Microfoundation of Economic Efficiency -- PART TWO: CONCEPTS -- TWO. Émile Durkheim: The Economy as Moral Order -- THREE. Talcott Parsons: The Economy as a Subsystem of Society -- FOUR. Niklas Luhmann: The Economy as a Autopoietic System -- FIVE. Anthony Giddens: Actor and Structure in Economic Action -- PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS -- SIX. Perspectives for Economic Sociology -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX
Summary: Beyond the Market launches a sociological investigation into economic efficiency. Prevailing economic theory, which explains efficiency using formalized rational choice models, often simplifies human behavior to the point of distortion. Jens Beckert finds such theory to be particularly weak in explaining such crucial forms of economic behavior as cooperation, innovation, and action under conditions of uncertainty--phenomena he identifies as the proper starting point for a sociology of economic action. Beckert levels an enlightened critique at neoclassical economics, arguing that understanding efficiency requires looking well beyond the market to the social, cultural, political, and cognitive factors that influence the coordination of economic action. Beckert searches social theory for the components of an alternative theory of action, one that accounts for the social embedding of economic behavior. In Durkheim and Parsons he finds especially useful approaches to cooperation; in Luhmann, a way to understand how people act under highly contingent conditions; and in Giddens, an understanding of creative action and innovation. Together, these provide building blocks for a research program that will yield a theoretically sophisticated understanding of how economic processes are coordinated and the ways that markets are embedded in social, cultural, and cognitive structures. Containing one of the most fully informed critiques of the neoclassical analysis of economic efficiency--as well as one of the most thoughtful blueprints for economic sociology--this book reclaims for sociology the study of one of the most important arenas of human action.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400825448

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE: CRITIQUE -- ONE. The Limits of the Rational-Actor Model as a Microfoundation of Economic Efficiency -- PART TWO: CONCEPTS -- TWO. Émile Durkheim: The Economy as Moral Order -- THREE. Talcott Parsons: The Economy as a Subsystem of Society -- FOUR. Niklas Luhmann: The Economy as a Autopoietic System -- FIVE. Anthony Giddens: Actor and Structure in Economic Action -- PART THREE: CONCLUSIONS -- SIX. Perspectives for Economic Sociology -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

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http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Beyond the Market launches a sociological investigation into economic efficiency. Prevailing economic theory, which explains efficiency using formalized rational choice models, often simplifies human behavior to the point of distortion. Jens Beckert finds such theory to be particularly weak in explaining such crucial forms of economic behavior as cooperation, innovation, and action under conditions of uncertainty--phenomena he identifies as the proper starting point for a sociology of economic action. Beckert levels an enlightened critique at neoclassical economics, arguing that understanding efficiency requires looking well beyond the market to the social, cultural, political, and cognitive factors that influence the coordination of economic action. Beckert searches social theory for the components of an alternative theory of action, one that accounts for the social embedding of economic behavior. In Durkheim and Parsons he finds especially useful approaches to cooperation; in Luhmann, a way to understand how people act under highly contingent conditions; and in Giddens, an understanding of creative action and innovation. Together, these provide building blocks for a research program that will yield a theoretically sophisticated understanding of how economic processes are coordinated and the ways that markets are embedded in social, cultural, and cognitive structures. Containing one of the most fully informed critiques of the neoclassical analysis of economic efficiency--as well as one of the most thoughtful blueprints for economic sociology--this book reclaims for sociology the study of one of the most important arenas of human action.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)