SOCIOLOGY 172

THE SOCIOLOGY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

WINTER 2003

Professor

Peter Kollock

TA

Maria Dziembowski

Office

287 Haines Hall

Office

234 Haines Hall

Email

kollock@ucla.edu

Email

mdziembo@ucla.edu

Office Hours

Tue – after class
Thu – 1:00 pm

Office Hours

Tue – 3:30
Thu – 3:30

Class Website

READINGS:  All readings will be made available online.

 

GRADING:  I will be using a non-competitive grade scale. In other words, the grade you get will not depend on how well others in the class have done. Your grade is based on your mastery of each of the required tasks; you decide for yourself how hard you want to work. I am willing to give every person in this class an "A" if she or he masters the material.  Your performance in this course will be based on two non-overlapping exams, a term paper, and participation in discussion sections.

 

 

 


INTRODUCTION

Week 1

 

    Entrepreneurship and Capital

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INFORMAL ECONOMIES

 

Week 2

 

    Competition and Informal Entrepreneurs

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana  (Hart)

 

 

 

 

Week 3

 

    Networks and Trust   (social capital I)

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4

 

    Micro-Finance   (financial capital I)

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         The Microcredit Summit Declaration and Plan of Action

·         The Hawala Alternative Remittance System

·         Microcredit Website

·         Microfinance Gateway Website 

 

 

 

 

Week 5

 

    Illegal Entrepreneurs

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         The Industry of Protection: The Market  (Gambetta)

 

 

[Study Guide for Midterm]

 

[Answer Guide for Midterm]

 

 

 

FORMAL ECONOMIES

 

Week 6

 

    The Anatomy of Silicon Valley   (social capital II)

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7

 

    Venture Capital   (financial capital II)

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

 

 

 

Week 8

 

    The Internet Bubble

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         Interview with Jim Breyer  (Frontline)

·         Transcript of Dot Con Documentary  (Frontline)

 

 

 

 

Week 9

 

    Lessons from the Bubble:
    How Not to Build a Market

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         Liquidity Myths  (Kollock & Jaycobs)

·         The Death of the Fat Butterfly  (Braziel & McAfee)

 

 

 

SPECULATIONS & CONCLUSIONS

 

Week 10

 

   Digital Entrepreneurs and Lessons Learned

 

 

 

Reading

 

 

Also recommended:

·         The Production of Trust in Online Markets.  (Kollock)

·         Virtual Worlds: A First-Hand Account of Market and Society on the Cyberian Frontier  (Castronova)

 

 

[Study Guide for Final]

 

 

[Writing Guide]

 

 

 

 

There is a broadly perpetrated fiction in modern society….  This fiction is that society consists of a set of independent individuals.  – James S. Coleman

Ask yourself what you need to know to make this the kind of world you would like to live in. Demand that your teachers teach you that.  – Pytor Kropotkin