Sociological Theories: a View on the Economy
Videos from the conferenceFrom October 25th – 28th an international academic conference ‘Embeddedness and beyond: Do sociological theories meet economic realities?’ took place at the HSE. Here are some video interviews with conference participants.
Economic theories are focused on explaining the current processes, but their deep understanding, according to the conference organizers, is only possible with the attraction of related sciences, which try to show that economic life is rooted in culture, institutions, everyday practices and other phenomena. One such science is economic sociology. Over the last 20 years it has been competing with such disciplines as new institutional economics, rational choice theory, relationship marketing and others, in the effort to explain economic phenomena.
The economic sociology conference ‘Embeddedness and beyond: Do sociological theories meet economic realities?’ was a unique event not only for Russia, but globally, too. Leaders in this field from all continents took part in its organization: the ‘Economy and Society’ committee of the International Sociological Association (ISA) and the European Sociological Association (ESA) Economic Sociology Research Network with the support of the ASA Economic Sociology section were all represented. Over 200 sociologists from Australia, England, Brazil, Germany, Canada, New Zealand, USA, France, and other countries participated in the conference. Their aim is to comprehend the development of the new economic sociology, and to evaluate the advantages and limitations of this approach in explaining key economic problems.
The topics of papers and discussions at the conference included financial markets, globalization and the crisis in modern capitalism, labour markets, the role of economic theories in economic life, the role of culture in the modern economy, as well as innovations and institutions.
Honorary speakers at the forum included Frank Dobbin (Harvard University), Karin Knorr Cetina (University of Chicago), Glenn Morgan (University of Cardiff, UK), David Stark (Columbia University), Laurent Thevénot (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris), Brian Uzzi (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University), Roberto Fernandez (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and Marion Fourcade (University of California, Berkeley).
Zoya Kotelnikova, specially for the HSE News Service
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