Sociology vs. Economics
The Final Showdown?
Claudia Scholz, Ph.D. August 30, 2007

What is the action?
Who is the actor?
Where does the action take place?
When does the action happen?
Why does the action occur?
How does the action occur?

What is the Action?

Economists:
Exchange…
What is the Action?

Sociologists:
Economic action is the production
and distribution of goods and
services that meet the wants or
needs of members of society.
- Karl Polanyi’s substantive definition
What is the Action?

Sociologists:
Reciprocity
Redistribution
Exchange
What is the Action?

Who Acts?

Economists:
Individuals
Households
Firms
Who Acts?

Sociologists:
Individuals are embedded in
Groups
Networks
Neighborhoods
Households & Firms are not “Black Boxes”
Who Acts?

Ester Boserup, Development Economist
• Post WWII development programs
• Assistance directed at market activities
• False assumptions about household
– Make-up
– Power structure
– Decision-making

Where does action
take place?

Economists:
Price-Setting Markets
Where does it take place?

Sociologists:
The Market is one of many social
institutions that facilitate the
production and distribution of goods
and services
e.g. Households, Governments, Networks
Where does it take place?

When does action
take place?

Economists:
Under conditions of scarcity
When does it take place?

Sociologists:
•Production & distribution of items that
satisfy wants and needs is ongoing
•Scarcity is often engineered by social,
economic and political actors
When does it take place?

Why do we act?

Economists:
“Why did the chicken
cross the road?
“To maximize his utility!”
- Wheelan p. 8
Why do we act?

Sociologists:
Habits, Customs, Conventions
Power, Coercion
Solidarity
Multiple Causation
Why do we act?

How does the action
take place?

Economists:
rationally
How does it take place?

Sociologists:
Limited cognitive capacity
Limited information
Limited options
How does it take place?

Economics is NOT Physics
(Just don’t tell the economists)

Acknowledgements
• Polanyi, Karl. 1957. Trade and Markets in
Early Empires, Free Press, New York,
• Swedberg, Richard. 1987. “The Paradigm of
Economic Sociology: Premises & Promises.”
Theory & Society. 16(2):169-213.
• Wheelan, Charles. 2002. Naked Economics.
New York: WW Norton.