20428 - Firms, Occupations, and Markets

Description

How does social structure shape the economy? Sociological research on the building blocks of economic organization—firms, occupations and markets—promises micro foundations to compete with neoclassical economic theory. It also links sociology to the interdisciplinary revival of radical political economy. However, it faces two limitations. First, economic sociology was launched against a narrow version of neoclassical economics, far from the attention to market power and imperfect information that defines modern economics. Second, economic sociology neglected distribution, which sidelined it from a sociology increasingly focused on inequality. In this panel, we discuss recent sociological research on firms, occupations and markets. What are the core sociological insights that can animate a new research program on the economy? How do these issues connect to substantive outcomes like income inequality, economic insecurity, political conflict and racial inequality?

Sub Unit

• Thematic Session

Presider

• Nathan Wilmers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panelists

• Carly Knight, New York University

• Luis Flores, Harvard University

• Georg Rilinger, MIT Sloan School of Management

• Hannah Wohl, University of California, Santa Barbara

Session Organizer

• Nathan Wilmers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology