Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry (review)

The origin of this book dates back to 2005, when the author decided to put together some of his articles on economic sociology. At the time, the study of economic sociology, Portes says, was in bad shape; his hope was to improve things by example. Soon, however, he came to the conclusion that to satisfy himself and to produce a good book, he would have to rework his earlier articles and also be explicit about his general perspective.

The result, five years later, is Economic Sociology: A Systematic Inquiry. Eight of the book's 10 chapters draw on Portes' earlier work, while the introductory chapter and the concluding chapter have been specially written for this volume.

Portes opens the book by stating that contemporary economic sociology is at "an impasse" and in "a disheveled state of affairs."(pp. xi:1) The tendency among contemporary economic sociologists is to reiterate what the classics say and add little new of substance. An important reason for this state of affairs is epistemological in nature: contemporary economic sociologists tend to mix up the different levels of analysis. To forge ahead, it is crucial to separate the following three items: general assumptions, explanatory mechanisms and research sites.

To accomplish his goal of redirecting and improving economic sociology, Portes uses the main bulk of Economic Sociology to work out his program. The book begins with a discussion of three general assumptions, followed by a discussion of three central explanatory mechanisms and three concrete examples of how the analysis should be carried out.

Does Portes succeed in his enterprise? To answer this question, let us begin by looking a bit more closely at his arguments. The three basic assumptions are the following: socially oriented economic action, unanticipated consequences of rational action and power. All of these are discussed in Chapter 2.

Socially oriented economic action means economic action that is explicitly social. What Portes has to say on this topic does not differ, as he acknowledges, from what can already be found in Weber and Granovetter. The standard work on unintended consequences of rational action is Merton's famous essay from 1936, and while Portes adds a longish discussion and typology of his own, there is little that cannot already be found in Merton. Power, according to the author, is somewhat neglected in contemporary economic sociology. He recommends a return especially to the ideas of Marx, Weber and Bourdieu.

The three explanatory mechanisms are social capital (Chapter 3), institutions (Chapter 4) and social class (chapters 5 and 6). Portes argues that the concept of social capital has been badly mishandled in today's social sciences, especially by political scientists who have extended the concept in untenable ways. His own preferred definition is close to what can be found in the works of Coleman and Bourdieu.

The concept of institutions has similarly been mishandled by non-sociologists, especially by the economists. According to Portes, "...economists are not professionally equipped to deal with the multiple elements of social life and, in ad hoc attempts to do so, they confuse them, producing impoverished or simply erroneous diagnoses of reality."(49) Institutions, Portes says, can be defined as the set of rules that governs roles in social organizations.

Social classes are clearly of special interest to Portes since he devotes two chapters to this topic, while social capital and institutions are discussed in one chapter each. Portes argues strongly against the idea that social classes are somehow irrelevant in today's society. The reader will also find a polemic against the small class argument of David Grusky and Jesper Sørensen as well as an argument against the dogmatic use of class during the 19^th century.

The three strategic research sites are discussed in one chapter each; and they are the informal economy (Chapter 7), ethnic enclaves and middlemen minorities (Chapter 8), and transnational communities (Chapter 9). Portes attempts to present each of these topics while drawing on his basic assumptions and explanatory mechanisms. He also surveys the existing...