The Handbook of Economic Sociology: Second Edition, Edition 2

Neil J. Smelser · Richard Swedberg

Jul 2010 · Princeton University Press

About this ebook

The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Second Edition is the most comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of economic sociology available. The first edition, copublished in 1994 by Princeton University Press and the Russell Sage Foundation as a synthesis of the burgeoning field of economic sociology, soon established itself as the definitive presentation of the field, and has been widely read, reviewed, and adopted. Since then, the field of economic sociology has continued to grow by leaps and bounds and to move into new theoretical and empirical territory.


The second edition, while being as all-embracing in its coverage as the first edition, represents a wholesale revamping. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg have kept the main overall framework intact, but nearly two-thirds of the chapters are new or have new authors. As in the first edition, they bring together leading sociologists as well as representatives of other social sciences. But the thirty chapters of this volume incorporate many substantial thematic changes and new lines of research--for example, more focus on international and global concerns, chapters on institutional analysis, the transition from socialist economies, organization and networks, and the economic sociology of the ancient world. The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Second Edition is the definitive resource on what continues to be one of the leading edges of sociology and one of its most important interdisciplinary adventures. It is a must read for all faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates doing work in the field.

• A thoroughly revised and updated version of the most comprehensive treatment of economic sociology available


• Almost two-thirds of the chapters are new or have new authors


• Authors include leading sociologists as well as representatives of other social sciences


• Substantial thematic changes and new lines of research, including more focus on international and global concerns, institutional analysis, the transition from socialist economies, and organization and networks


• The definitive resource on what continues to be one of the leading edges of sociology and one of its most important interdisciplinary adventures


• A must read for faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates doing work in the field

About the author

Neil J. Smelser was formerly University Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was on faculty from 1958 to 1994, and Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1994-2001). He is the coauthor (with Talcott Parsons) of Economy and Society and the author of The Sociology of Economic Life. Richard Swedberg is Professor of Sociology and Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society at Cornell University. He is the author of Principles of Economic Sociology and Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology (both Princeton) and the coeditor of The Economic Sociology of Capitalism.