Dr David Pinzur STC S217A

This course is available on the MSc in Economy and Society, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places (it is controlled access). Places will be allocated based on a written statement. Priority will be given to students on the MSc in Economy and Society, MSc in Political Sociology and MSc in Sociology. This may mean that not all students who apply will be able to get a place on this course.

This course will investigate some of the key concepts and methods by which sociologists study markets, as well as the unique ways of understanding that this perspective makes possible. We will explore this topic through empirical studies that span a wide range of markets for goods ranging from art to financial derivatives to data and beyond. Over the course of the term, we will see how different approaches work (or don’t) when applied to markets that differ (in some ways) quite widely. The course aims to give students the tools to make critical analyses of how markets operate, who exerts power in these processes, and what consequences follow both inside and outside the market.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, online materials and seminars totalling 25 hours in MT.

Reading Weeks: Students on this course will have a reading week in MT Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

A 1500 word essay is required.

Recommended texts:

• Callon, Michel. 1998. The laws of the markets. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford;
• Fligstein, Neil. 2001. The Architecture of Markets. An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century Capitalist Societies. Princeton, NJ a.o.: Princeton University Press;
• Granovetter, Mark. 1995[1974]. Getting a Job: a Study of Contacts and Careers. Chicago; London: Chicago University Press;
• Krippner, Greta R. 2002. "The elusive market: Embeddedness and the paradigm of economic sociology." Theory and Society 30:775-810;
• Swedberg, Richard. 2003. Principles of Economic Sociology. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the WT.

The course is assessed by a 4000 word essay due in LT week 2.

An electronic copy of the assessed essay, to be uploaded to Moodle, no later than 4.00pm on the second Wednesday of Lent Term.

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