Economics and Sociology: Towards an Integration

187 Pages·1976·4.19 MB·English

by  Neil J. Smelser (auth.)

Economics and Sociology:
Towards an Integration
Economics and Sociology:
Towards an Integration
Edited by
T. Huppes
U niversity of Groningen
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
Library 01 Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under titte:
Economics and sociology.
Reprint. Originally published: Leiden:
M. Nijhoff Social Sciences Division, 1976.
Includes bibliographical references.
I. Economics-Addresses, essays, lectures.
2. Sociology-Addresses, essays, lectures.
I. Huppes, T.
HM35.E25 1982 306'.3 81-20806
AACR2
ISBN 978-94-017-1370-2 ISBN 978-94-017-1368-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-1368-9
Copyright Cl 1976 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by H.E. Stenfert Kroese B.Y., Leiden in 1976.
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1976
Second printing 1982
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other
means without written permission from the publisher.
Preface
In recent years economics has been the subject of increasingly severe
criticism. It has failed both to predict and to counteract the economic
crisis now aftlicting nearly the whole Western world. Economic life is
more disrupted than ever:
- the rate of inflation has risen alarmingly
- unemployment has not been as high since the 1930s
- economic growth is stagnating
- there is increasing opposition to the inequality in the distribution of
income and wealth, on anational scale as weIl as in the world at large
- the process of economic integration (EEC, GATT, UNCTAD) is being
thwarted
- programmes of economic development in the third world have not
produced the desired effects
- etcetera.
Obviously, it would not be fair to put the blame for the crisis on economic
science. But the present predicament does call for serious consideration
of the !imitations of economic explanation. Among the social sciences,
economics is unquestionably the most advanced discipline. Its very
sophistication, however, leads it to abstract from social phenomena such
as norms, institutions, power, conflict and social change. Thus the
manifest influence of sociological variables on the course of economic
processes remains hidden.
Dominating this book as a drumbeat is the conviction held by the
several authors that a c1earer grasp of the current problems may be
obtained if economists and sociologists are prepared to co-operate more
closely. An interdisciplinary approach is warranted; the distinction
between the social sciences should be less sharply drawn.
The separate chapters of this book were first written as discussion
papers for the Symposium Economics and Sociology: Towards an
Integration, organised by the Department of Economics, Groningen
VI PREFACE
University, in September 1975. Among the participants were economists
and sociologists from nearly all the Dutch universities. For two days the
village of Gieten (Dr.) was the scene of a unique confrontation between
economics and sociology, during whiCh the integration of the two
disciplines was approached from various angles. The concluding chapter
of this book by Adam Szirmai, Groningen, gives an impression of this
event.
Contributions towards the integration of economics and sociology are
f-ound in both disciplines, particularly in economic sociology and
institutional economics. Both are represented twice in this book. In
addition a paper has been included on the problem of integration
approached from the methodological viewpoint. Finally, an example of
'applied integration' is presented in the form of an interdisciplinary
analysis of a concrete economic problem: inflation.
Economic sociology studies economic processes from a sociological
frame of reference. In chapter 1 the functionalist viewpoint is represen
ted by Neil J. Smelser from Berkeley, California. 'The relevance' of
economic sociology for economics' is illustrated by way of two
examples: the sociological analysis of economic rationality, and an
analysis of the social implications of economic stagnation.
In my own contribution in chapter 2, I approach the integration
economics-sociology from the angle of social exchange theory. This
school of thought works with a paradigm similar to that of neoclassical
economics. George C. Homans, the first to bring the concept of social
exchange into prominence, is taken as a point of departure. Mter
confronting his theory with the neoclassical equilibrium model, an effort
is made to develop an interdisciplinary conception of society.
Unlike economic sociology, which is generally acknowledged as an
independent specialism, institutional economics is hardly accepted as
such in Holland. Originating in the U .S. at the beginning of this century
as areaction to neoclassical economics, it has been popular in that
country ever since. The founder of institutionalism is the economist and
sociologist Thorstein Veblen. Today this school of thought is represen
ted by John K. Galbraith, Robert L. Heilbroner, Gunnar Myrdal, Allan
G. Gruchy, K. William Kapp and others. Institutionalists may be
distinguished from the neoclassical mainstream by the special attention
they give to sociological variables. In Gruchy's words: they study 'the
changing pattern of cultural relations which deal with the creation and
disposal of scarce material goods and services by individuals and groups
PREFACE VII
in the light of their private and public aims'. In various publications
Gruchy has applied hirnself to the difficult task of ordering the frequently
diverging contributions of the institutionalists. In chapter 3 he discusses
the importance of institutional economics for an interdisciplinary
approach of social and economic problems.
In April 1976, while still at work on the manuscript of his book, I
received the sad news ofprofessor K. William Kapp's unexpected death.
Kapp was one of Europe's best known institutionalists. His views were
dose to Myrdal's as will appear from his contribution to the Symposium
in chapter 4.
As far as I know the integration of economics and sociology has never
been approached from a methodological perspective. Only few scientists
are familiar with the research methods of both disciplines. In chapter 5
Ivan Gadourek, Groningen, gives an account of his scrutiny of 'the
convergence and diversification in methodologies of economics and
sociology'. His paper shows how both sociologists and economists might
leam from each other's methods and techniques of research.
As an example of 'applied integration' the connection between the
level of inflation and the degree of anomie in a society is examined in
chapter 6. Inflation is normally considered to be a subject within the
domain of economics ; anomie is a phenomenon studied by sociologists.
The idea that the two phenomena are related is based on the
interdisciplinary conception as developed in chapter 2.
The integration of economics and sociology is no easy matter. The
various chapters of this book should not be regarded as definite solutions
to the problem. They provide possible lines of access. I should add,
moreover, that this book contains only a selection of the various ways in
which the problem of integration may be dealt with. Neo-marxism and
general systems theory, for instance, are not represented. The main
purpose is not to present a complete picture but to stimulate the interest
in the integration of the two disciplines. I hope the book will serve this
purpose.
T.H.
University of Groningen
June, 1976.
Contents
Preface V
List of contributors IX
NEIL J. SMELSER
1. On the relevance of economic sociology for economics 1
TJERK HUPPES
2. Economic sociology or sociological economics?
The theory of social exchange and its bearing on neoclassical
economics ; towards an interdisciplinary conception of society 27
ALLAN G. GRUCHY
3. Institutional versus orthodox economics and the interdiscipli-
nary approach .................... 51
K. WILLIAM KAPpt
4. In defense of institutionalism 76
IVAN GADOUREK
5. Convergence and diversification in the methodologies of eco-
nomics and sociology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96
TJERK HUPPES
6. Anomie and inflation 128
ADAM SZIRMAI
7. Impressions of a symposium 161
List of contributors
Ivan Gadourek, Professor of Sociology, University of Groningen.
AHan G. Gruchy, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland, U.S.A.
Tjerk Huppes, Assistant professor of Economics and Sociology, University of
Groningen.
K. William Kapp t, Professor of Economics, University of Basel, Switzerland.
Neil J. Smelser, Professor of Sociology, Berkeley, University of California,
U.S.A.
Adam Szirmai, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Groningen.
1. On the relevance of economic sociology
for economics
Neil J. Smelser
1.1. Introduction and definition of terms
So many and so complex are the linkages between the economy and its
socio-cultural environment that it is almost impossible to summarize the
relevance of economic sociology for economics in the compass of a short
paper. Accordingly, in wh at follows I am forced to be both somewhat
cryptic and somewhat selective in my emphases.
I begin with a few preliminary definitions of terms. With Samuelson, I
define economics as
.... the study of how men and society end up choosing, with or without the use of money, to
employ scarce productive resources that could have alternative uses, to produce various
commodities and distribute them for consumption, now or in the future, among various
people and groups in society'.'
I define sociology as the systematic effort to explain regularities aod
variations in individual orientations and behavior, group orientations and
behavior, social structures, sanctions, norms, and values; more specific
ally, sociology studies the causal and interactive processes that relate
these several types of variables to one another.2
Finally, I define economic sociology as the application of the frames of
reference, variables, and explanatory models of sociology to that
complex of activities concerned with the production, distribution,
exchange and consumption of scarce goods and services.
I. Paul A. Samuelson, Economics, 9th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973), p. 3. A more
concise, but essentially similar definition is given by Bronfenbrenner: 'Economics is the
systematic study of social adjustment to, and management of, the scarcity of goods and
resources'. Martin Bronfenbrenner, 'A "Middlebrow" Introduction to Economic Methodo
logy' , in Sherman Roy Krupp (ed.), The Structure 0/ Economic Science: Essays on
Methodology (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1966), p. 6.
2. A more elaborated definition may be found in Neil J. Smelser, (ed.), Sociology: An
Introduction, second edition, (New York: Wiley, 1973).