Dr Rebecca Elliott - STC S211

This course is available on the MPhil/PhD in Accounting, MSc in Economy, Risk and Society , MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Are we really rational utility-maximisers? What is ‘the economy’ and what is its relationship to society? How does economic life reflect and enact moral categories? How can we understand the production of economic ‘winners’ and ‘losers’? This course offers a general introduction to the theoretical foundations of economic sociology, providing an opportunity to engage questions like these through both sociologically grounded accounts of economic phenomena and sociological critiques of the analytical assumptions and research procedures common in mainstream economics.

Topics covered in the course include: critical approaches to economy and society; economic rationality; the sociology of economics; morals and markets; valuation and worth; sociology of consumption; credit and debt; class and inequality.

25 hours of seminars in the LT.

Reading Week in Week 6 in line with Department policy.

A project overview due in week 7 of LT. Individual feedback sessions in office hours provided to check student project development.

Recommended general texts: M Granovetter & R Swedberg (Eds), The Sociology of Economic Life; D Slater & F Tonkiss, Market Society: Markets and Modern Social Theory; N Smelser & R Swedberg (Eds), The Handbook of Economic Sociology; V Nee & R Swedberg (Eds), The Economic Sociology of Capitalism. A detailed reading list will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Project (100%, 4000 words) in the ST.

Two hard copies of the assessed project, with submission sheets attached to each, to be handed in to the Administration Office, S116, no later than 16:30 on the second Wednesday of Summer Term. An additional copy to be uploaded to Moodle no later than 18:00 on the same day.

Attendance at all workshop sessions and submission of all set coursework is required.