Essay on Economic Sociology

Essay on Economic Sociology – Economic Sociology or The Sociology of Economic Life is a new branch of sociology.

As Neil J. Smelser defines, economic sociology is “the application of the general frame of reference, vari­ables, and explanatory models of sociology to that complex of activities concerned with the produc­tion, distribution, exchange, and consumption of scarce noods and services.”

The first focus of economic sociology is on economic activities alone. The economic sociolo­gist studies how these activities are structured into roles and collectivities. He inquires by what values these activities are legitimised, by what norms and sanctions they are regulated, and how these sociological factors or variables interact.

Image Source: economicsociology.tasa.org.au

The second focus of economic sociology is on the relations between sociological variables or factors as they manifest themselves in the economic as well as non-economic contexts. For example, how do familial roles associate with occupational role to a local community and the control of its political structure? This focus includes both situations in which economic and non-economic struc­tures are integrated with one another.

This interplay of sociological variables or factors in the economic and non-economic fields can be observed in two ways:

(i) Within concrete economic units. For example, in the industrial firm, the economic sociologist studies the status systems, power and authority relations deviance, cliques and coalitions, and the relations among these phenomena. In fact, ‘industrial sociology” concen­trates more on this point,

(ii) Between economic units and their social environment. At one level, the economic sociologist studies the relations between economic interests and other interests (legal, political, familial, religious) in both the community and the larger society.

At a higher level he studies the relation between the economy (considered as an analytic system of society) and the other systems. “This inter-unit focus leads to the “larger issues” of economic sociology – e.g., public policy, labour-management conflict, and the relations between economic classes-that lie in the tra­dition of Marxian and Weber and thought”.

Finally, the economic sociologist studies the distinctively sociological aspects of the central economic variables themselves-wowed as one of many types of sanctions in social life.

Sub-divisions of Economic Sociology: Economic sociology has its own sub-divisions. Among these can be mentioned-

(a) Occupational Sociology,

(b) The Sociology of Work,

(c) The Sociology of Complex Organisations (at least that part which deals with economic bureaucracies),

(d) Indus­trial Sociology,

(e) Plant Sociology,

(f) The Sociology of Consumption and so on.