Economic Sociology and European Capitalism

This course is part of a series of activities of the new Jean Monnet Chair in European Political Sociology.

The module provides an introduction to economic sociology, with an emphasis on its emergence as a sub-field of sociology and its recent growing into a prominent field within sociology. The course focusses on the sociological study of economic phenomena and will both pay attention to contributions of classic sociologists to reflecting on and analysing the economy, the market, and capitalism, as well as focus on recent developments and new theoretical avenues. The main sociological approaches to the economy will be reviewed, an introduction will be provided to the basic conceptual and heuristic tools used in economic sociology, and new ways of researching the interaction between the economy and the market, on the one hand, and society, on the other, will be explored.

1. To introduce the students to the way sociology can contribute to understanding the economy, the market, and capitalism;
2. To explore different ways in which the economy is related to, and embedded in, society;
3. To help students develop a set of critical skills to analyse the economy and capitalism;
4. To create a basis for the analysis of social change and the relations between market mechanisms, political institutions, solidarity and communitarian structures;
5. To stimulate understanding of different forms of capitalism, and the historical and contextual basis of capitalist economies.