Group items tagged

Economic sociology examines the social underpinnings of money and markets. It's fun, and all the kids are doing it! I'm an Associate Professor of Economic Sociology at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark.

"This post represents something of a departure from the usual themes of this blog, since it does not deal directly with questions of economic behavior, money or markets. However, it does address "big picture" issues in scientific inquiry, which affect all realms of sociological research. Specifically, the post builds on an analogy drawn by Wolfgang Streeck in his new book, Re-Forming Capitalism: Institutional Change in the German Political Economy (Oxford 2009). His account of epistemology in social science, and its resemblance to the advance of knowledge within evolutionary theory, struck me-to my surprise-as a particularly compelling way to frame the contribution of qualitative research to sociology. The devaluation of qualitative sociology as "unscientific" and of dubious value compared to quantitative research has always struck me as ill-considered; Streeck's work provided a way to articulate a response that went right to the heart of the debate. "