Professor Rebecca Jean Emigh

Economy and Society, Sociology 173

Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.

Venue: Hershey 1609

email: emigh@bigstar.sscnet.ucla.edu

Office: Hershey 2310

Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2:00 - 4:00

This course is a general introduction to economic sociology, illustrating how the basic economic categories of labor, commodities, money, markets, and the economy are affected by social relations.

Students are required to attend class, take copious lecture notes, and do all the readings. Grades are based on the mid-term and final examination. The dates of the examinations are given below. The examinations cover both the lectures and the readings.

There is a reader for the class, with all of the required readings, at Westwood Copies, 1001 Gayley in Westwood Village, 310-208-3233. There are also copies of the reader on reserve at Powell Library.

Tuesday, January 11^th. Introduction.

Smelser, Neil J. and Richard Swedberg. 1994. "The Sociological Perspective on the Economy." Pp. 3-26, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Block, Fred. 1990. Postindustrial Possibilities. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapter 2, "Economic Sociology," pp. 21-45.

Thursday, January 13^th. Labor: Work versus Labor.

Pahl, R.E. 1988. "Editor’s Introduction: Historical Aspects of Work, Employment, Unemployment and the Sexual Division of Labor." Pp. 7-20, in On Work: Historical, Comparative, and Theoretical Approaches, edited by R.E. Pahl. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Mills, C. Wright. 1953. White Collar: The American Middle Classes. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 10, "Work", pp. 215-238.

Tuesday, January 18^th. Labor: Buying and Selling Labor.

Tilly, Chris and Charles Tilly. "Capitalist Work and Labor Markets." Pp. 283-312, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Thursday, January 20^th. Labor: Gender and Labor.

Leidner, Robin. 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapter 1, "Working People," pp. 1-14 (up to section, "The Research") and Chapter 6, "Meanings of Routinized Work: Authenticity, Identity, Gender," pp. 178-213.

Milkman, Ruth and Eleanor Townsley. 1994. "Gender and the Economy," Pp. 600-619, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Tuesday, January 25^th. Commodities: Use Value, Exchange Value, and The Division of Labor.

Smith, Adam. 1961. [1776]. The Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Chapter 1, "Of the Division of Labor," pp. 3-13.

Mintz, Sidney W. 1985. Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History. New York: Penguin Books. Chapter 1, "Food, Sociality, and Sugar," pp. 3-18 and Chapter 4, "Power," pp. 151-186.

Thursday, January 27^th. Commodities: Their Social Construction.

Taussig, Michael T. The Devil and Commodity Fetishism in South America. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Chapters 1 and 2, pp. 3-38.

Tuesday, February 1^st. Commodities: Commodification, The Fetishism of Commodities, Reification.

Thompson, E.P. 1967. "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism." Past and Present 38:56-97.

Nimmer, Raymond T. and Patricia Ann Krauthaus. 1992. "Information as a Commodity: New Imperatives of Commercial Law." Law and Contemporary Problems 55:103-130.

Thursday, February 3^rd. Commodities: From Production to Consumption.

Carruthers, Bruce G. and Sarah L. Babb. 2000. Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings, and Social Structure. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. Chapter 2, "Marketing and the Meaning of Things," pp. 15-44.

Hirsch, Paul M. 1972. "Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems." American Journal of Sociology 77:639-659.

Tuesday, February 8^th. Mid-Term Examination

Thursday, February 10^th. Money: Historical Aspects

Cipolla, Carlo M. 1956. Money, Prices, and Civilization in the Mediterranean World: Fifth to Seventeenth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Chapters 2 and 3, "The Dollars of the Middle Ages," and "The Big Problem of the Petty Coins," pp. 13-37.

Smith, Adam. 1961. [1776]. The Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Chapter 1, "Of the Origin and Use of Money," pp. 23-30.

Tuesday, February 15^th. Money: The State

Dodd, Nigel. 1994. The Sociology of Money. New York: Continuum. Chapters 1 and 2, "The Political Economy of Money," and "Money and the State," pp. 3-40.

Thursday, February 17^th. Money: Cultural Influences

Poggi, Gianfranco. 1993. Money and the Modern Mind: Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapter 5, "Money: Its Properties and Effects," pp. 132-163.

Zelizer, Viviana A. 1989. "The Social Meaning of Money: ‘Special Monies.’" American Journal of Sociology 95:342-77.

Tuesday, February 22^nd. Markets: What is a Market?

Carruthers, Bruce G. and Sarah L. Babb. 2000. Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings, and Social Structure. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press. Chapter 1, "The Embeddedness of Markets," pp. 1-13.

Swedberg, Richard. 1994. "Markets as Social Structures." Pp. 255-282, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Thursday, February 24^th. Markets: The Classic and Neo-Classical View.

Smith, Adam. 1961. [1776]. The Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Chapter 2, "Of the Principle Which Gives Occasion to the Division of Labor," and Chapter 3, "That the Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," pp. 13-23.

Radford, R.A. 1945. "The Economic Organization of a P.O.W. Camp." Economica 12(48):189-201.

Tuesday, February 29^th. Markets: Imperfections or Realities?

Block, Fred. 1990. Postindustrial Possibilities. Berkeley: University of California Press. Chapter 3, "The Market," pp. 46-74.

Geertz, Clifford. 1978. "The Bazaar Economy: Information and Search in Peasant Marketing." American Economic Review, supplement, 68:28-32.Thursday, March 2^nd. Markets: Non-Marketables on the Market.

Zelizer, Viviana A. 1978. "Humans Values and the Market: The Case of Life Insurance and Death in 19th-Century America." American Journal of Sociology 84:591-610.

Landes, Elizabeth and Richard A. Posner. 1978. "The Economics of the Baby Shortage." The Journal of Legal Studies 7:323-48.

Tuesday, March 7^th. Economy: Comparative Perspectives

Hart, Keith. 1990. "The Idea of Economy: Six Modern Dissenters." Pp. 137-160 in Beyond the Marketplace: Rethinking Economy and Society, edited by Roger Friedland and A. F. Robertson. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

Hamilton, Gary. 1994. "Civilizations and the Organization of Economies." Pp. 183-205, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Thursday, March 9^th. Economy: The Development of Capitalism.

Lachmann, Richard. 1989. "Origins of Capitalism in Western Europe: Economic and Political Aspects." Annual Review of Sociology 15:47-72.

Le Roy Ladurie, Emmanuel. 1979. Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error. Chapter 1 "Environment and Authority," pp. 3-23.

Tuesday, March 14^th. Economy: Capitalism and Socialism.

Polanyi, Karl. "The Economy as Instituted Process," In Primitive, Archaic and Modern Economies, edited by George Dalton. New York: Anchor Books. Sections entitled "Reciprocity, Redistribution, and [Market] Exchange," and the beginning of "Forms of [External] Trade, Money Uses, and Market Elements," pp. 148-158.

Szelényi, Iván, Katherine Beckett, and Lawrence P. King. 1994. "The Socialist Economic System." Pp. 234-251, in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Thursday, March 16^th. Review.

Thursday, March 23^rd. Final Examination, 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.