This course is an introduction to the sociology of economic life. To marshall the material, the theme of the course will be moral views of market society. By this I mean the long history of arguments about the relationship between the market and the moral and social order. In Albert Hirschman’s terms, markets have variously been seen as civilizing (the neoliberal program), destructive (critiques of commodification) or feeble (varieties of institutionalism and network theory). A fourth idea, that of markets as moralizing (cultural) projects has recently taken hold in the literature as well. The seminar will follow these categories, though we will not devote equal time to each one. Roughly speaking, the first two will get less time than the latter two.
This course examines recent work in economic sociology focusing on the relationship between the moral order of exchange and the regulation of markets. We focus on three topic areas: 1. Markets and the creation of moral boundaries. How are conceptions of moral agency and virtue expressed and implemented by legally permitting or banning various kinds of controversial exchanges? 2. The role of legal and economic professionals in the classification and legitimation of controversial exchanges. Of note here is the recent literature on the role of economic models in the design and operation of markets (often labelled the “performativity” of economics). 3. Gift- and commons-based exchange and their relationship to market exchange and legal regulation.
This is a survey course in the sociology of culture. It is a difficult topic to organize into a manageable course for several reasons. Unlike the family, religion or politics, it is not a distinct institution or social process that can be treated more or less separately from others. Unlike networks, stratification or micro-interaction, it does not have as well-developed a set of methods that can provide an initial focus for study. The bias of this course is towards empirical studies of the production of culture, particularly in its more organizationally and institutionally durable forms. But this is still a very wide net, and we will read pieces covering everything from micro-level studies of small groups to comparative macro-sociologies of cultural change across nations.
This course is an introductory survey of some main themes in sociological theory. It is aimed at first year graduate students in the sociology department. In the single semester we have available to us, it's impossible to get more than a brief introduction to some of the main concerns and historical development of sociological theory. The course does not pretend to be a comprehensive survey. It is weighted towards so-called classical theory. We also read more recent things, though you may find that ``more recent things'' still falls under the category of "things written before you were born".
This course is taught as part of the Markets and Management Program. surveys the development of modern organizations and organizational analysis. The focus is on for-profit firms, but we will also look at other complex organizations (e.g., churches, the state, unions, voluntary associations, social movements, and so on) as we go. We will explore different explanations of how organizations work, why they fail, how they should be managed, and how they connect with other aspects of social structure and culture. The course will give you a critical grounding in basic organizational theory, and teach you how to put these ideas to work in the analysis of both real organizations and the huge body of scholarly and popular literature about them.
This senior seminar is a capstone course for the Ethics Certificate Program. We examine the relationship between the institution of the market and the moral order of society. The market has variously been seen as a civilizing force in society, a corrosive influence on character, a seedbed of personal virtue, an engine of envy and spite, the foundation of individual freedom, a destructive juggernaut, and a fragile structure liable to break without the right mix of supporting values and institutions. During the first part of the course we read some classics in the social theory of the market. We then consider more closely some theoretical and empirical relationships between market institutions and the moral categories we use to assess them.
This course is an introduction to some of the classical thinkers whose work helped establish sociology as a distinctive discipline. It is thus also an introduction to early efforts to explain the turbulent origin, extraordinary growth and inner workings of modern industrial-capitalist societies. We spend most of our time discussing five authors: Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Georg Simmel.