This reading list provides some basic literature associated
with key content of the Master
Program of Economic
Sociology at Goethe
University Frankfurt. It
is especially designed for
students, who would like to prepare themselves for joining the master
program by upgrading
their capabilities in
accordance with the
international standards of
teaching and research in
economic sociology. The
reading list consist of selected textbooks, handbooks and encyclopaedias
as well as readers that
cover all the
areas of the
Frankfurt Master Program
of Economic Sociology,
namely theories and
methods of economic
sociology, sociology of
organization and work, sociology of markets, and economic governance.
Textbooks
Recommended textbooks are:
-
Swedberg, R. (2003), Principles of Economic
Sociology, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Carruthers, B. G. and Babb, S. L. (2012),
Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings, and Social Structure, Second Edition, New
York: Sage.
-
Hass, J. (2007), Economic Sociology: An
Introduction, London: Routledge.
-
Trigilia, C. (2002), Economic Sociology: State,
Market, and Society in Modern Capitalism, Oxford: Blackwell.
Swedberg’s
textbook is our
primary recommendation. It
outlines his Weberian
approach to economic sociology, and in doing so it presents some key
content of his co-edited Handbook
of Economic Sociology,
cited below, in
a compressed format.
The subsequently addressed
textbooks are useful
complements. Carruthers and
Babb add further
content on inequality,
culture and power,
Hass provides additional
perspectives from organization
studies as well
as from the
overlapping areas of
political economy, and
Trigilia puts an
emphasis on the
theoretical classics in
economic sociology and
their persistent relevance
for the analysis of modern capitalism.
Handbooks and Encyclopaedias
-
Smelser, N. J and Swedberg, R. (eds.) (2005),
Handbook of Economic Sociology, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
-
Beckert, J. and Zafirovski, M. (eds.) (2006),
International Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology, London: Routledge.
The Handbook of
Economic Sociology, edited
by Smelser and
Swedberg is currently
the most relevant
handbook in the
field. It brings
together contributions on
state-of-the-art research in the diverse
fields of economic sociology. Together with Swedberg’s
textbook presented above, which should be consulted first, it is part of
our primary recommendations. The
Encyclopedia of Economic
Sociology by Beckert
and Zafirovski augments this content by presenting brief
entries and short articles on selected keywords and issues.
Readers
-
Biggart, N. W. (ed.) (2002), Readings in
Economic Sociology, Oxford: Blackwell.
-
Dobbin, F. (ed.) (2004), The New Economic
Sociology: A Reader, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Granovetter, M. and Swedberg, R. (eds.) (2011),
The Sociology of Economic Life, Third Edition, Boulder: Westview Press.
All the three readers mentioned above present original texts
which have exercised major analytical impact on the field
of economic sociology.
The primary recommendation is
Biggart’s reader, which
provides a well-balanced overview of classical and
current texts on capitalism, markets and economic action. It is effectively
augmented by Dobbin’s
reader, which puts
an emphasis on
organizational issues, and
the reader by
Granovetter and Swedberg, which accentuates literature on market and
firms.
