Sociological Conjunction
From October 25-28, 2012, a major event in sociology, a joint conference of economic sociologists from the two largest sociological associations in the world, the ISA and ESA, will take place in Moscow.
‘Embeddedness and Beyond: Do Sociological Theories Meet Economic Realities?’ will be held under the auspices of the Higher School of Economics. An unusual feature of the conference is that it has been organized jointly by both the International Sociological Association (ISA) RC02 “Economy and Society” and the European Sociological Association (ESA) Economic Sociology Research Network with the support of the ASA Economic Sociology section.
This event is particularly noteworthy because although these two associations hold congresses regularly, they occur at different intervals and the conferences rarely coincide. The last joint interim conference of the two associations took place more than ten years ago, and was also held in Moscow. Active support from the third, and probably the most authoritative sociological association, the ASA (American Sociological Association), makes this Moscow event one of the largest events in economic sociology in the last few years.
Economic sociology developed as a reaction to the habit of pure economists to describe individuals’ economic behavior based only on rational motives. Sociologists emphasized that people do not live in a vacuum, they are subject to cultural traditions, social stereotypes, historical experience, the influence of their personal milieu, advertising, media, etc. All these factors affect their decisions in the economic sphere and can be described by the term ‘embeddedness’. Economic sociology today involves a wide range of research into the sociological aspects of economic activity in its various forms.
However, judging by the conference title, history has perhaps gone full circle, and today the question is being asked of sociologists: haven’t they gone too far from the economic ground?
Event venue: Moscow, Polytechnic Museum, Entrance 9 – plenary sessions; HSE building at 20 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa.
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