ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 ACCOUNTS Greetings om the Chair, Nina Bandelj In This Issue Page ! Economic Sociology Series published by Polity Press. !Plastic Money 2 ! ! Book Spotlight 7 The issue includes a conversation ! ! ! with Akos Rona-Ta s and Al ya Economic Sociology 8 ! ! Guseva about their new book, and & Political Economy spotlights of new books by John !Community ! Campbell and Ove Pedersen; Saskia Meet Your Council: 9 ! Sassen; and Thomas Janoski and Jennifer Bair ! ! Darina Lepadatu. We are delighted ! to continue with the Meet our !Estudios de la Economía 13 ! ! Council feature, this time Emergent Market 16 ! introducing Jennifer Bair, Lindsey Societies Series ! Ibanez and Adam Goldstein. ! Dear economic sociologists, Meet Your Council: 18 ! The program for the ASA in San Lindsey Ibanez Francisco is being finalized and will ! Here comes the Spring 2014 issue of Meet Your Council: 19 Accounts!! The editorial team be available on the ASA Meeting Adam Goldstein compiled various resources for website on April 30. We plan to ! section! members. We feature the present the various sessions of Book Spotlights 20 interest in our summer Accounts ! Economic Sociology and Political Polity’s Economic 21 ! issue. Suffice to say at this point that Economy community (on Facebook Sociology Series and! Twitter), r un by Israeli there will be plenty of opportunities ! sociologist Oleg Komlik, which now to discuss economic sociology in New Fiscal Sociology 23 has! around 16,000 members from 75 August in San Francisco! Marc Workshop countries. We also include a Schneiberg, the regular economic conversation! with José Ossandón sociology session organizer, has who runs a blog Estudios de la wisel y convinced the ASA to Economía! in Spanish, Portuguese, allocate six (!) not just one session to from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, at 50 Mason and English. this topic, and in addition to five Social House. We are grateful to Adam ! section sessions, there will also be Goldstein who helped us find a great Other resources for younger 17(!) roundtables organized by venue, which wil l be al l about scholars! that we showcase include Simone Polillo and Hexuan Zhang. economic sociology for that evening, the New Fiscal Sociology Workshop These will include a few tables and host just us, and any friends you organized! by Isaac Martin, Ajay dedicated to Ph.D. students want to bring along. Mehrotra and Monica Prasad, and presenting their disser tation ! Have an enjoyable Spring! As always, the Emerging Market Societies proposals with faculty discussants, a we are open to receiving suggestions book series by Edward Elgar new section mentoring initiative ! for short pieces to be published in the Publishing, edited by Salvatore coordinated by Lindsey Ibanez. Babones,! who is inviting first-time summer issue. You can email me at authors to propose books to him. I also ask you to please reserve time [email protected]. in your busy ASA schedules for the For junior and more seasoned All best wishes, economic sociologist alike, editor Economic Sociology Section Jonathan Skerrett tells us about the Reception, on Monday, August 18, Nina Bandelj

!1 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

!Akos Rona-Tas and Alya Guseva discuss their new book, Plastic Money Questions by Anne Schwichtenberg

Your book Pla stic Money: puzzles themselves. The self- Constructing Markets for Credit creating market is a myth. Cards in Eight Postcommunist Countries (Stanford University Press, For example, information sharing 2014) centers on postcommunist in post-communist countries had societies but it reay discusses issues to be achieved either by forceful that are central among our state intervention or by pressures contemporary economic concerns, credit to integrate into a larger foreign and debt. Can you discuss how your organization headquartered in findings are similar to, and where they different markets. Banks did not diverge om the Western development want to give up information to of the credit market? What makes the help competitors, and as banking postcommunist case intriguing? was concentrated, large banks that had the most information had also Our analysis draws general lessons the least to gain from sharing. about market emergence, and, in Information sharing among US particular, about the emergence of banks emerged seemingly more markets for cards. Some of our spontaneously and is often thought findings shed new light on Western of as an example of how markets developments. create the institutions necessary for their own operation. Looking We frame the credit card as a at the US story through the lens of product that combines two the post-communist experience, features: it is both a means of however, we suddenly see, that the payment and an instrument to reason why US banks were ready access personal loans. Developing to cooperate and create private markets for credit cards are faced credit bureaus was a set of legal with several puzzles, some of them obstacles that since the 1920s, connected to the payment side of prevented banks from competing the cards, such as the need to across state lines and from growing standardize the technology, or the too big. Small banks that did not trick of simultaneously attracting compete had much less to lose merchants and cardholders, and (and more to gain) by letting other some to the card as a means of banks know who had been their borrowing, such as information good and bad borrowers. In other a symmetr y and information words, what looked like sharing among competing lenders. spontaneous cooperation in the All new card markets, no matter US turns out to be the result of where they are located, are faced government intervention of a very with similar set of puzzles. particular kind. In fact, US banks Markets, however, differ in how fought hard these regulations and those puzzles get solved, and managed to dismantle them only markets ba sed on rational by the end of the 1990s. By that ! competition can never solve these time, however, nationwide credit

!2 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 reporting had been already share some field work stories that officers of the security forces – firmly in place, and was an have been especiay memorable? the army, police and the KGB essential element of lending. (so-cal led silo viki). It wa s Our field research involved amusing and very surprising for What makes the interviewing a variety of experts us to meet people, some of postcommunist case particularly in all of the eight countries such whom sounded like they intriguing is that it has been as bankers, card and security continued living in the mental de veloping alongside the specialists, government officials world of the Cold War – emergence of the market and industry analysts. Getting constantly vigilant, distrustful economy itself, on the ruins (or, access to these people was and on guard, fighting imaginary as some say, with the ruins) of particularly difficult in the case enemies. It is no longer amusing communism. The difficulties of of Russia and Ukraine, where or surprising, that several years the post-communist transition banking has been shrouded in later, in Russia, siloviki no se verel y complicated the secrecy. In a couple of cases, we longer onl y dominate emergence of the card market were not allowed to go inside employment rosters of banks’ that had to weather a the bank because our security departments, but they, contracting economy, inflation, interviewees while agreeing to collectively, are tightening their unemployment, instability of be interviewed did not want it grip over Russia’s economy and the banking system, etc. But it to be known officially, preferring society. And the Cold War also provided the emerging to be interviewed in a public mentality is no longer a fanciful market with unique tools that place instead. In one of the metaphor. We wish we could say did not exist in the West in that earlier interviews in Russia, in we saw it coming. form. For instance, employees of the late 1990s, Alya was told the still sizable state sector that none of the “how much” or In Vietnam, we encountered an became the first mass target “how many” questions would be unexpected bonus. Because customer group as their salaries, answered because the top many Vietnamese experts were previously paid in cash, were management prohibited anyone trained at Central and East mo ved to direct-deposit who was not authorized to do so European universities during schemes per a greements to release any numbers related la st decade and a half of between banks and employers, to the bank activity (this even communism, we found out that endowing workers with both included the number of cards many Vietnamese bankers and bank accounts and ne wl y- the bank had issued). These officials spoke good Hungarian. minted cards. This ty pe of moves were intended to protect The head of the first private workplace coercion would be the bank f rom its direct bank in Vietnam translated incomprehensible today in the competitors. The aura of Janos Kornai’s classic book US. But if we consider that the vigilance was amplified among Economics of Shortage from first real credit card, Diners the employees of banks’ Hungarian to Vietnamese. Our Club, launched in 1950, was a “security departments,” regular colleague Tuan Pham, who was charge card, and took off units of the bank, which we only our invaluable guide in Hanoi because American companies encountered in Ukraine and and Ho Chi Minh City, and who decided that the expenses of Russia. They were responsible is a university professor, a their travelling salesmen could for a wide variety of activities successful entrepreneur running be better controlled with a card ranging from verifying loan a software teaching franchise than with ca sh, cer tain applications and fighting fraud and a school for fa shion similarities become apparent. to investigating non-payments, modelling, and who is a graduate and providing general physical from NYU’s Stern Business The book covers a lot of territory, and informational security of School, also had a degree from and is based on field research in the bank. Security departments Hungary and speaks Hungarian many countries. Would you be able to were staffed with the former with native fluency. Once when

!3 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Akos was chatting with Tuan in on our memories to find an make people believe that they Hungarian in a sauna run by the image that would work. The are nothing more than son of a high communist party sculpture “The Worker and the realizations of timeless, cadre on the outskirts of Hanoi, Pea sant” is a piece of universal principles. Economists in the intimacy of the hot steam monumental ar t, initial l y describe markets in this normal a local man suddenly surprised created by the Soviet sculptor state, as a formal system. But them with a Hungarian Vera Mukhina for the World this system depends on profanity uttered in jest and Expo in Paris in 1937. It is a mechanisms that must be in then he proceeded to sing for us recognizable symbol of socialism place first, and that become fully a Hungarian folk song. (for instance, it has been used as visible only once the market is a logo for Mosfilm – Moscow in trouble. Following markets The cover you chose for your book film studio, from the late 1940s). from their inception point, as seems to capture the story you are But it is also an image of two the mechanisms are being set up trying to te in the book. Wi you typical “socialist subjects,” a and put into practice is another te us how the choice for the cover man and a woman, and we point at which these image came about? wanted the cover to reflect the mechanisms are seen with a Stanford University Press was centrality of subjects – naked eye. consumers – to the process of kind enough to ask us for input Just as Ferdinand de Saussure a early on. And subsequently, it market-building. In the original version, the worker and the centur y a go distinguished gave us a choice of two covers: between historical and this one, which was the idea we peasant are holding a hammer and a sickle, in ours – they are structural linguistics, we develop developed in one of our regular a distinction between generative Sky pe conversations, and on a shopping spree, hammer and sickle tossed aside in favor and functional r ules of the another one that SUP developed market. Economics is mostly on its own. (Our editor also of credit cards, shopping bags and a cart in hand. interested in formalizing the asked us that we do not ask our latter, while economic friends and colleagues to vote on One of the benefits of the sociologists along with the two co vers, but we postcommunist credit market was economic historians and immediatel y violated this that it could draw on lessons learned political economists are more request by asking anyone and om other developed credit markets. interested in describing and everyone. The unofficial vote Did you find this to be the case? In a explaining the former. While was split, so in the end we went time when many financial generative and functional rules with our gut feeling). institutions in the West are of the market cannot be From the very beginning we undergoing tremendous change, completely separated, not even wanted an image that would what lessons can we learn om the as much as for human languages capture the central idea of the post-communist case? that change on a much slower book: the arrival of an object, a time scale, we believe it is a One very general lesson is that powerful distinction that carves credit card -- born and perfected markets are hard to construct in the West and serving as a out a very important field of and once built they are fragile. inquiry for economic sociology. protagonist of globalization, The fragility of the financial onto the postcommunist scene markets is painfully obvious to Another, less abstract lesson is that still bore the traces of its everyone since September 2008. about globalization. In the communist past. Since the book The magic trick of markets is book, we develop the idea of a covers eight different countries, that they look natural after they performative ideal type, a blue we were looking for an image are up and running and before print that is both a picture of that could represent all of them they meet their demise. Markets how something works and has a equally well. We both grew up exist in historical time, but force to create this picture. under socialism, and we relied when they are in full swing, they Post-communist banks studied

!4 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 card markets in the West and national cards that may also one is far behind in this regard due were also under pressure to day merge with their national to its heavy path-dependent conform to the rules set up by ID cards. As the payment card investment in magnetic stripes. multinational companies and grows smar ter and mo ves inter national financial beyond magnetic stripes, it How does the book continue or organizations like the becomes an indispensable tool depart om your previous work? Inter national Finance of sur veil lance and Akos’s earlier book The Great Corporation and Bank for governmentality. Surprise of the Smal l International Settlements. Yet So while initially, the Western Transformation, explored the they also had to negotiate their role of the private sector in local environment. When we model worked as an ideal type, and you could look at the credit Hungary under socialism and started our research in 2003, the the way it reconfigured social global forces of isomorphism card a s the epitome of globalization and the spread of relations and ultimatel y seemed to dominate, but by the contributed to the collapse of end of our research, especially American consumer culture, very much like George Ritzer the system. That book focused since the financial crisis, we see on the central socio-economic a substantial shift. China has described it in the 1990s, and chalk up the discrepancies to institution of communism: been in the lead as it decided in universal state employment. In the early 2000s to develop its growing pains, by now the Western model is much less that book, markets emerge as own card, UnionPay, and barring responses to the failures of a Visa and MasterCard from its dominant and much less attractive. Moreo ver, the bureaucratic economy. Here we domestic market. China copied scrutinize the ways markets are some elements of Wester n American-style credit card technology (magnetic stripe or created by intentional social credit card markets, UnionPay actors resolving market failures. cards look similar and work like “swipe-and-sign”) has recently Western cards, but it reframed come under attack for its This book directly follows from the purpose of the card in a greater susceptibility to data our article, published in the ASR completely different way. In the theft after a string of massive in 2001, comparing Russian and West, the card pro vides security breaches at several US American credit card markets. convenience for customers, a retailers like Target and Neiman That piece was the beginning of service, and it is a commodity. Marcus. EU has recently issued our collaboration, and it set the In China, cards are thought of a regulation intended to move foundation for the subsequent as a key part of the domestic all cards issued in the EU region theoretical scaffolding that was payment system, and the data onto the more secure chip-and- developed in this book around card ownership and use generate PIN technology (for a more the centrality of the concept of can give the government control detailed discussion of this, see uncertainty in lending and the over the retail sector and the our recent SUP blog (http:// use of the American credit card consumers. For instance, card stanfordpress.typepad.com/blog/ case as a performative ideal use can impose financial 2014/02/the-dinosaur-in-your- type. A large NSF grant to study transparency and force pocket.html). In several of the uncertainty and risk in emerging transactions out of the shadow countries we studied, the credit card markets followed economy. China’s new credit arguments about the superiority and paid for most of our travel bureau is not only an instrument of the chip over the magnetic and research expenses in the to optimize lending decisions, stripe were put forth as early as eight countries. but also a powerful tool of the 1990s, made particularly fighting crime and corruption. attractive by their “late In 2008, Alya published her first Russia, Ukraine and some other developer” status. Today, these book Into the Red, an in-depth countries, like India, have also countries continue advocating analysis of the emergence of the been moving in this direction in for chip cards a s a more Russian credit card market, an attempt to develop their progressive technology. The US ba sed in par t on her Ph.D.

!5 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 dissertation as well as on the Economists’ models follow a understood that putting the risk data collected as part of the marginalist approach: given the department in full charge would NSF grant. This book conditions, this is how market never result in a big enough card foreshadowed some of the players beha ve or ought to clientele and that they had to themes in Plastic Money, which behave. Those given conditions find a balance which was further included 1) a panoramic look at get buried in the assumptions of complicated by the fact that the process of emergence of the the model. It wa s no they often had no idea how to market from the very beginning coincidence that Milton calculate the profitability for (even before the beginning – Friedman wanted us to leave their card operation separate really, from the late 1980s and those assumptions alone. But from the rest of their business. the reform of the socialist those conditions are the very In fact, even in the mid-2000s monobank system) and up to material that economic most banks reported that they the present moment, and 2) the sociologists should be curious thought they either lost money treatment of market-building as about. The issue is not just or just broke even on their card a strategic process, which whether those assumptions are business. So the ability to act to involves finding solutions to a correct, but if they are correct, minimize losses is an series of problems (“market how did they come about? achievement, not a human trait, puzzles” as we call them in and requires scholarly scrutiny. Plastic Money), the solutions For instance, economists would Moreover, these achievements shaped by the resources assume that banks will maximize are temporary even if they serve available in the postcommunist profit and minimize losses on the market players well enough landscape. their products. This is eminently for a while, because technology, reasonable, and indeed, most politics, institutions etc., are all Plastic Money moves beyond banks we encountered seemed changing, and these our earlier work. Not only does to do so. But this does not accomplishments have to be re- it cover a much larger empirical follow from some general law of attained. How banks come to ground (20 years and eight human nature. Banks are not balance market expansion and countries) bringing together humans, they are organizations risk, how they ensure that they comparative historical and of humans, and, as we explain in can tel l if a par t of their economic sociology but it also the book, within banks, operation is profitable or loss seeks to make novel theoretical employees of the card making, and how they redo contributions. department were interested those as circumstances shift, are almost exclusively in selling as the kind of questions economic If you were to extract some of the key many cards as they could and issues the book tackles that are sociologists should ask and, cared much less about non- eventually, answer. deserving of more attention by paying clients than people in the economic sociologists, what would risk department. Bank directors *********************************** those be?

The ASA program will be available on April 30. Keep your eyes out for the exciting set of papers presented! on economic sociology! You’ll be able to see all of them at the 2014 Annual Meeting website: http://www.asanet.org/am2014/am2014.cfm

!6 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

The National Origins of Policy Ideas: Knowledge Regimes in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark (Princeton University Press, 2014)

John L. Campbe & Ove K. Pedersen

! In politics, ideas matter. They provide the foundation for economic policymaking that in turn shapes what is possible in domestic and ! international politics. Yet until now, little attention has been paid to ! how these ideas are produced and disseminated, and how this process varies between countries. The National Origins of Policy Ideas provides the first comparative analysis of how “knowledge regimes”—communities of policy research organizations like think tanks, political party foundations, ad hoc commissions and state research offices, and the institutions that govern them—generate ideas and communicate them to policymakers. John Campbell and Ove Pedersen examine how knowledge regimes are organized, operate, and have changed over the last thirty years in the United States, France, Germany, and Denmark. They show how there are persistent national differences in how policy ideas are produced. Some countries do so in contentious, politically partisan ways, while others are cooperative and consensus oriented. They find that while knowledge regimes have adopted some common practices since the 1970s, tendencies toward convergence have been limited and outcomes have been heavily shaped by national contexts. Drawing on extensive interviews with top officials at leading policy research organizations, this book demonstrates why knowledge ! regimes are as important to capitalism as the state and the firm, and sheds new light on debates about the effects of globalization, the ! rise of neoliberalism, and the orientation of comparative political ! economy in political science and sociology.

Mark Your Calendars! ! Economic Sociology Section Reception Monday, August 18, from 6:30 to 8:30 50 Mason Social House, San Francisco http://50masonsocialhouse.com/

!7 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Economic Sociology and Political Economy Community

An Interview with Oleg Komlik by Scott Mitche

What is the Economic Sociology and both of them essentially engage Political Economy community? in and deal with the ontological axiom of mutual embeddedness The Economic Sociology and of State-Economy-Society, Political Economy community is illuminating its variant angles. a global online academic Therefore, in my vie w, the community whose goal is to endeavor to bring closer these disseminate the f r uits and two disciplines and interlace insights of socio-political them into one tremendously research of the economy to the plentiful scholarship will not just public and academics; and to enrich the investigation of serve as a platform on which socio-political processes and community members share institutions of the economy; Oleg Komlik is a PhD Candidate relevant information, exchange additionally, in line with Public in Economic Sociology in the ideas and create collaborations. Sociology imperative (Burawoy Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurion Recently, it has been regarded as 2005, 2014; see also an excellent University and a Lecturer in the a new kind of learned association Discussion Forum by which I School of Behavioral Sciences at that reflects the transformations wa s inspired "Economic the Col lege of Mana gement undergone by the academia in Sociology as Public Sociology" in Academic Studies. In 2009, his the digital interactive era. Socio-Economic Review, vol. 5 MA thesis "'Deed of Recalling Jay Bolter's (1991) (2), 2007), it will also equip us Compromises and Patchwork': resonant statement "the with a powerful scientific arsenal Prohibition on Money Laundering computer is an ideal writing to lead the intellectual fight Law- Between the Global and the against, in Polanyi's bright terms Local" was awarded the Best space for our networked society", one might see the ES/PE (1947), market fundamentalism Master Thesis Prize by the Israeli and economic determinism. Sociological Society, and the community as a rally on the web Outstanding Master's Thesis (2nd of science where research and How did the community get started? award) by the Israeli Political knowledge meet intellectual Science Association. His PhD curiosity about the constitution When I star ted my own project "The State, Banks and the and functioning of, what I called academic journey through the Financial System in the Political in my disser tation, the fields of Economic Sociology and Economy of Israel" has been indissoluble trinity of State- Political Economy, I felt – and I widely acknowledged by the Israeli Economy-Society. still gladl y do – a thirst for academia and awarded several knowledge and rele vant competitive scholarships and From an epistemological grants. Oleg is a founder and materials. I've been envisioning perspective, the ES/PE and looking for a source, one moderator of the global online community aims to bridge two community of Economic Sociology website or database that provides historically separate disciplines: and Political Economy and serves a toolkit for a social scientist as a board member of the Israeli '(new) economic sociology' and studying the economy and Sociological Society, and Junior 'political economy'. Whereas capitalism. To my surprise, the Sociologists Network at the their methodological lens, searches did not answer my Inter national Sociological theoretical focus and empirical expectations. Of course, there Association. realms of research could differ, were academic associations

!8 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 websites, blogs, personal Economic Sociology and should people join? webpages, mailing lists and e- Political Economy. Hence, I journals—but, as great as they had figured out that a The essential role of the are, these sources offered only proactive approach must be community is to be hub of partial and narrow picture on taken. knowledge and information. what was going on in the areas Therefore the community of ES and PE. Moreo ver, Mainly because of these two brings on a regular basis (once browsing numerous websites reasons, the challenges they a day) to the attention of our and searching for specific pose and opportunities they members two sor ts of content takes time and there is embody, in June 2011 I decided resources. First, substantive no guarantee you'll find what to take the plunge and to contents - insightful and you're looking for. At the same initiate the establishment of a innovative books, thought- time, I attended the 2011 global virtual community of provoking papers, interesting SASE conference in Madrid Economic Sociology and posts in the (academic) blogs, and after talking to colleagues Political Economy. valuable documentaries, sharp I realized that I had spotted an quotes, meaningful memes How large is the community and (such "Theory in pictures", important, unsatisfied need how has it evolved over time? among academics and junior "Economists on economics", scholars especially. In order to reach diverse "Economy in Literature") and audiences, the community is funny ones. Secondly, practical In addition, one more earnest active on five main social updates - important calls for reason has driven setting up networks: Facebook, LinkedIn, papers for conferences and the ES/PE community. During Twitter, Google+ and Tumblr workshops, graduate and post- the financial crisis and the [Please see p. 27 for URLs to visit]. doc fellowships, grants and job years thereafter I was upset by The contents are identical on openings. the paucity of educated, all the websites and they are I'm glad to hear from time to informed and intel ligent out at the same time. debates in global and national time that the community is Currently the community used also a s a col lateral arenas regarding the economy. counts already more than The positions of Neoliberal teaching resource in order to 16,000 people from about 75 keep students intellectually corps in the media, policy countries. Among our for ums and economics involved, to arouse their members are academic faculty, interest in these issues and to departments specializing in researchers, undergraduates, giving "academic veneer to the encourage them to get into doctoral students, state scholarly work. political projects" (Bourdieu bureaucrats, politicians, and Wacquant 2001) did not journalists, activists, and What kind of topics do you like to surprise me. Rather, I was others interested in feature? How do you decide what frustrated by the fact that a broadening horizons through to highlight? huge body of fa scinating er udite discussions and scholarl y knowledge and enlightening readings on The first criteria for brilliant social scientists whose various topics about Economic highlighting a book or an works have literally stultified Sociology and Political article is whether I like it and and debunked the dominant Economy. The U.S is the most does it interest me in general. "Invisible Hand" tales have represented country in the Defining it might be elusive, mostly remained in the shadow community. India is the however Murray Davis' classic and been unheeded – while second. "That's interesting!" (1971) many out there were just not probably echoes in my mind. I aware of treasure trove of What kinds of resources do the ES/ also ask myself: does it achieve profound research in PE community offer and why the goals of the community? Is

!9 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 it important? Is it innovative? to visit us, to join, to share state agencies. Therefore in my Is it useful? posts, to comment and please doctoral dissertation I focus feel free to recommend the on the socio-political Regarding the featured topics, community websites anyone foundations of the Israeli the posts cover a wide range of who is interested in socio- banking system and analyze issues in Economic Sociology, political study of the economy: the dynamics between the Political Economy, Fiscal your colleagues, students and Israeli banks and the state Sociology, Social Studies of friends. throughout the years. This Finance and Markets, Labor study scrutinizes: the essential and Welfare research, and What does the future hold for the role of banking in realization Sociology of Economics. Economic Sociology and Political of the Zionist nation building; Within these themes, I tend to Economy community? the evolution of the Israeli prefer comparative studies Although Kenneth Boulding, banking system and the close (over time and across space), cooperation between the works on markets evolution the former president of the American Economic banks, the state authorities and change, institutional and political actors; and relations, interests struggles, Association said that "Anyone who believes in indefinite particularly, the institutional development and diffusion of change of the financial system ideas, power of capital, cultural growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is in the Neoliberal age. This contexts, politics of inequality project is approaching its end and business networks. Of either mad or an economist", the community keeps growing and I'm wil lingl y looking course, other subjects get ahead. publicized too. and I think we are only in the beginning. I believe more Bolter, Jay D. 1991. Writing Space: I would like to thank every people will join in to benefit The Computer, Hypertext and the scholar whose research I from shared knowledge and History of Writing. Hillsdale, NJ: blog ged about and e ver y join up to support - using an Lawrence Erlbaum Associate. conference organizer whose ad enormous multiplying and I aired. The success of the ES/ circulating effect of social Bourdieu, Pierre and Loïc PE community, first of all, networks - the cause of Wacquant. 2001. “Neoliberal Newspeak: Notes on the New accredited to them. promoting Economic Planetar y Vulgate”. Radical Sociology and Political Philosophy 108: 2-5. Furthermore, it is necessary to Economy in these turbulent point out that the community times. Burawoy, Michael. 2005. "For members are valuable Public Sociology." American contributors and active Finay, te us about your own Sociological Review 70(1): 4-28. generators of contents. By research. What are you working on their enthusiasm and ongoing currently? Burawoy, Michael. 2014. interactions, they jointl y "Introduction: Sociology as a maintain the campfire. I am In my ma ster 's thesis I Combat Sport." Current Sociology 62(2): 140-155. grateful to them all! explored the legislative process through which the global anti- Murray, Davis S. 1971. "'That's What is the best way to get money laundering norms and Interesting!' Towards a involved? practices have been adopted in Phenomenology of Sociology and a Israel in accordance with the Sociology of Phenomenology." The best way to get involved is local societal, political and Philosophy of the Social Sciences 1: to come on board! I invite the economic context. During the 309-344. American economic course of this research I sociologists and Accounts' became puzzled by the Polanyi, Karl. 1947. "Our Obsolete readers especially to be part of institutional relationship Market Mentality: Civilization Must Find a Ne w Thought this initiative. You are welcome between Israeli banks and the Pattern." Commentary 3: 109-117.

!10 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Meet Your Council: Council Member Jennifer Bair

Jennifer Bair is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder

How do you employ economy into grew out of my interest in the your way of thinking about and sociology of development because analyzing the world? over time I became convinced that I needed the former to do I follow Polanyi in understanding the latter. economy as an instituted process encompassing multiple forms of What is your current work focusing interaction, among people and upon? between people and the natural world, towards the satisfaction Recentl y, there ha s been a (or pursuit thereof) of needs and veritable explosion of interest in wants. I am interested in the topic of international trade understanding where these and production networks, or interactions take place, how they “global value chains,” as they have are organized, what consequences become known. International they have for participants, and institutions (e.g. the World Bank, how the answers to these the World Trade Organization) construct render the economy questions change over time and and multilateral development knowable? What are the policy across different kinds of spaces— agencies (e.g. U.S. Agency for implications that derive from this institutional, social, territorial, International Development) are way of seeing the economy and the etc. organizing high-le vel relative position of actors within international conferences on the it? From a de velopment When and how did you come to be topic, developing new metrics for perspective, what kinds of interested in economic sociology? measuring global value chains, interventions does the global value and more generally promoting chain perspective enable or I majored in international affairs global value chains a s a foreclose? These are the questions as an undergraduate at Johns mechanisms of growth and I’m exploring in current research, Hopkins because I thought it development. The consensus together with Marion Werner, a would be the course of study emerging in this field is that the feminist economic geographer. In most relevant to my nascent rise of global value chains is the preliminar y phase of this interest in development. I took transforming the landscape of the project, we’ve been interviewing the standard economics courses international economy, altering development practitioners and for international affairs students-- the nature of economic policymakers, as well as academics macro, micro, international trade, competitiveness, and creating (mostly economists) who serve as etc,--but I struggled to see a no vel oppor tunities and consultants to institutions and connection between this material challenges for regional/national agencies and who often translate and the questions of comparative economic development. To me, “academic” global value chain de velopment I wanted to the recent ‘disco ver y’ and anal ysis into more applied understand. Then I stumbled into embrace of the global value chain versions. Now we’re in the process a few sociology seminars and calls for a sociology of knowledge of developing a grant proposal to found a vibrant intellectual analysis, especially since these fund comparative ethnographic tradition addressing just these forms of coordinated trade are fieldwork on multiple global value questions, and I was hooked. In really not that new. What, then, chain-inspired de velopment short, I’d have to say that my explains the popularity of global initiatives in Latin America. interest in economic sociology value chains? How does this

!11 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Does your current work connect to countries. In this book, we to describe companies what you've done prior, or is it examine the extant analogous to today’s brands going into any new directions? explanations for sweatshops— and retailers) jointly liable for market failure, state failure, wages and working conditions Basically, I want to develop an and managerial failure—and in their contractors’ sewing economic sociology of the show that each of these shops. Of course, this model intra- and inter-firm exchanges explanations are inadequate would have to be updated and that underlie contemporary because they ignore the root revised in a number of ways to trends like “outsourcing” and cause of labor violations in reflect contemporary supply “off-shoring.” I’m interested in subcontracting networks: the chains, but the principle of how spatially dispersed and downward price pressure that joint liability is of even greater organizationally fragmented retailers and brands put on relevance today. production processes are inter national suppliers. coordinated, the degree to Because these manufacturers This argument about joint which these coordinated are competing with each other liability actually grew out of exchanges approximate a for the orders of buyers like earlier research I conducted network form that is “neither Wal-Mart, H&M, etc., because for a very different purpose. I market nor hierarchy,” and the primar y (if not onl y) wanted to understand why the how they col lectivel y criteria on which they are kinds of tr ust-ba sed, constitute an entity called the competing is price, the collaborative relationships, or global economy. Those have dynamic is quite similar to a “embedded networks,” that been the core questions reverse auction. We bring Brian Uzzi described in a series orienting my work since several kinds of data to bear on of classic articles about New graduate school, but I’m this analysis, including primary York’s garment district differed pursuing them in some new data col lected through so dramatical l y f rom the ways. For example, I am fieldwork in over a dozen contracting relations I and working on a collaborative, countries. The core of the others observed in the global interdisciplinary book project; argument we make is that apparel industry. In the course my collaborators, Mark Anner efforts to combat sweatshop of tr ying to answer this and Jeremy Blasi, are a political conditions in global supply question, I stumbled upon the scientist and labor lawyer, chains will only succeed by jobbers’ agreements, which I respectively. Independently, developing mechanisms that realized were an important the three of us had been recognize and enforce the historical institution that researching the globalization responsibility of brands and helped produce the particular of textile and apparel retailers for conditions in their social structure of competition production for years. Clothing suppliers’ factories. We find that Uzzi obser ved in his is a classic case of what Gary such a model in the history of fieldwork. Although the Gereffi once called a “buyer- the American apparel industry: jobbers’ a greements were driven” commodity chain— the “jobbers’ a greement,” undermined by trade that is, almost none of the which wa s a col lectivel y liberalization and the collapse apparel we buy today is bargained contract that of apparel manufacturing in manufactured by the retailer or regulated labor-capital the United States, the question brand that is marketing it. relations in the garment we pursue in this new book is Instead, it’s manufactured by industr y by holding how the principle underlying independent contractors, ‘jobbers’ (the term then used them might be resurrected. mostly located in developing ! !

!12 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Estudios de la Economía: An Interview with José Ossandón

Questions, editing, and translation by Taylor Nelms

Since 2009, the blog and website Estudios de la Economía [in English, Studies of the Economy or Economy Studies] has offered interdisciplinary and original research, interviews, and debate in Spanish, Portuguese, and English from a network of researchers around the world. Below we present an interview with the blog’s founder and editor José Ossandón. Join the conversation at http:// estudiosdelaeconomia.wordpress.com/ and follow along on Twitter @delaeconomia. *******

What is Estudios de la Economía? support of Felipe González (currently a PhD candidate at Estudios de la Economía is a the Max Planck Institute). As collective blog that seeks to the network of contributors has José Ossandón is an Assistant make itself into a focus or grown in number, and the Professor in the Department shared point of reference for disciplines and geographic of Organization, Copenhagen researchers who study economic regions represented ha ve Business School and Associate themes with the conceptual and diversified, we have also noted a Researcher in the Instituto de methodological tools of the certain academic maturation. Investigación en Ciencias social sciences. The word When we began many in the Sociales, Universidad Diego “studies” gestures to fields (like group were doctoral students or Portales Chile. He received his organization, science, gender, had recently finished their PhD f rom Goldsmiths, media, or—more recently— PhDs. Today we have new PhD University of London. His finance studies) in which students, but also others who recent publications include the researchers from different are a bit more senior. edited books Adaptación: La disciplinary traditions come Empresa Chilena después de together to discuss a shared With these changes, we have Friedman (2013), Disturbios empirical object. noted the development of both Culturales (2012), and collective and individual voices. Who contributes to Estudios de la Comunicaciones, Semánticas y Not necessarily in the sense of Economía, and what kind of posts Redes (2011) and the articles generating a properly “Latin can be found on the site? “Reassembling and Cutting the American” thought, but in Social with Health The blog currentl y ha s 38 mo ving f rom the specific Insurance” (Journal of Cultural contributors from Argentina, intersection that first Economy), “Sowing Consumers Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, characterized the network of in the Garden of Ma ss Germany, Mexico, Spain, the contributors to the development Retailing in United Kingdom, and the of original arguments that are Chile” (Consumption, Markets United States. I am both starting to influence the local and Culture), and ‘Quand le contributor and editor (which and global academic discussions Crédit à la Consommation involves organizing posts, in which each person is inserted. Cla sse les Gens et les editing, and moderating These changes are also evident Choses’ (Revue Française de comments), and f rom the in contributors’ more stable Socio-Economie). beginning I have counted on the institutional positions and in

!13 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 the important increase of PhD in the U.K. during the Santiago, we have continued to journal articles and books they second half of the 2000s, I “weave” the network, inviting have published. found a very fertile field of people recommended by study about the economy that someone or people we met at Each week, usually on Monday, consisted not onl y of conferences and in other we upload “fixed posts,” which sociologists (my original activities. are generally 2000 words or discipline), but also less and report on ongoing anthropologists, geographers, At the beginning, we were research and recent readings. and scholars of STS and inspired by blogs that had The dates of fixed posts are cultural theory in the broadest already existed for some time, reserved a year in advance. We sense. In those days it was like OrgTheor y (http:// also post interviews, which will called “Cultural Economy.” orgtheory.wordpress.com/) or be of special interest to readers After my PhD, I returned to Socializing Finance (http:// of Accounts who do not read Chile as an assistant professor socfinance.wordpress.com/), Spanish. We don’t have the in a sociology department and but over time we have found resources to transcribe, edit, I began to search for people our niche. Estudios de la and translate interviews, but with whom to discuss and Economía does not focus on editing audio today is quite share what I was reading and topics internal to the U.S. easy, so we post interviews as studying. In Chile, I found a academy like OrgTheory and podcasts, which allow you to strong community of people we don’t have such a specific listen to conversations with working at the intersection of object of study like Socializing scholars whose work we STS and topics like marketing, Finance. At one moment, I generally only read. We have a social policy, and creativity, thought that perhaps we could rich archive of interviews with plus a few doing social network transform the blog into a people like Jens Becker t, analysis and others closer to newsletter like Accounts or the Daniel Beunza, Miguel Angel critical management studies. I European Economic Sociology Centeno, Bruce Carruthers, also learned about conferences Newsletter. But becoming a Paul du Gay, Gil Eyal, Manuel organized by people at the newsletter (circulated in .pdf Antonio Garretón, Mark Instituto de Altos Estudios form) would entail losing Grano vetter, Clara Han, Sociales at the University of everything that being online Donald MacKenzie, Bil l San Martín in Buenos Aires, makes possible. Today we are Maurer, Danny Mil ler, Argentina, and there I was comfortable as a “collective Timothy Mitchell, Yuval Millo, pleasantly surprised to find a academic blog.” We are able to Philip Mirowski, Veronica rich conversation between post videos, images, podcasts, Montecinos, Fabian Muniesa, economic sociologists and and so on; try out formats and Da vid Stark, Wolfgang anthropologists in Buenos ideas that would be too risky Streeck, Richard Swedberg, Aires and Rio de Janeiro. for a journal; and produce spin- Peter Wa gner, Guil lermo offs or more traditional Wormald, and Viviana Zelizer. In September 2010, Estudios publications. For example, we Final l y, on Thursdays, we de la Economía started as an have thought about editing, upload all sorts of news, which attempt to make something with Mariana Heredia, a book appear under neath the like a permanent seminar that of the interviews on the blog, principle post. would allow us to surmount and several of the contributors geographic and institutional who met each other through Te us a bit about the blog’s history. distance and extend the Estudios de la Economía have How was it started? conversation beyond participated in special issues Its history has something to do conferences and workshops. and col lected volumes with my own academic From the original group of together. biography. When I did my people in Buenos Aires and

!14 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

The content of Estudios de la “performativity,” more to the Schneider about Latin Economía is primaril y in production and histor y of America, and others interested Spanish (although sometimes economic knowledge and its in performativity and domestic our Brazilian colleagues prefer use in the practical production finance. This conversation has to write in Portuguese). The of markets. This has also been also generated new ways of interviews and some co-posts connected to discussions about talking about “big” themes like with other sites (especially the the role of economists in neoliberalism and capitalism. Charisma Network and, less specific areas of social policy— Another author that ha s frequently, Socializing Finance) like the environment, appeared in multiple are in English. Obviously, there education, or the city—as well conversations is Karl Polanyi. is always the temptation to as to the interests of other become more “global” and contributors (coming from the What does the future hold for publish definitively in English. perspective of organizational Estudios de la Economía? The majority of our analysis) in topics like “new To continue! As long as we contributors understand public management,” rankings, continue to find the project English, but it is much easier and instruments of public entertaining and continue to and more natural to write in policy. feel enthusiastic about it, as Spanish and we don’t want to The second theme is domestic, long as we continue to excite lose that. Moreover, the blog more collaborators, and as long also acts as a resource for household, or e ver yday finance. There is a very rich as we don’t become something teaching, professionals and that people do just to improve researchers in Latin America. combination of people working at the intersection of institutional rankings. I would What are some of the most STS and finance, as well as also like to continue exploring important discussions that have others influenced by French some of the experiments we emerged om the blog? sociology and anthropology. have started—for instance, to We have debated long and continue to look for ways to do I would highlight three themes hard over the work of scholars things with our friends in the among many, shared “objects” like Bill Maurer, Jane Guyer, Charisma Network and of study about which we have Florence Webber, and Viviana perhaps to open new types of both individual contributions Zelizer. But such debates do collaboration beyond the and collective discussion. I not emerge f rom reading social sciences, for example, think that anyone interested in assignments, but instead from with ar tists who work on these three themes will be able the search for conceptual tools economic subjects. to find on the blog a good to think through the incredible archive and lively debate. Finay, te us about your own things that have appeared in research. What you currently The first theme is about contributors’ fieldwork on working on? economists, who are ver y topics like inflation, credit, important in the recent history investment, the Argentine Currently I live in Denmark, of Argentina and Chile. The “corralito,” and the use of where I am an Assistant discussion in these countries multiple moneys. Professor in the Department has been dedicated primarily of Organization at the Third, there is increasing Copenhagen Business School. to topics like technocracy discussion about topics closer related most closely to the These days I work in three to comparative political primar y area s: First, on political science or sociology of economy. There has been an political elites. But on the subjects related to STS, interesting conversation markets, and finance, about blog, the discussion ha s among people working with turned, due to the influence of which I tr y to write f rom the idea of “varieties of material I collected for my Michel Callon’s notion of capitalism” or the work of B.R.

!15 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 dissertation about the history I work on what I am calling for “economic” side, which is more of private health insurance in now “markets as devices”—that about social and cultural theory Chile, as well as from data is, the empirical analysis of the but which of course always from my later research about history and knowledge utilized serves to inspire the rest of my consumer credit in the retail in the creation, evaluation, and research, I will continue to industr y there. With my repair of markets designed to explore the intersections colleagues at the Copenhagen resolve public issues (like between the work of authors Business School, as well as with education, pollution, energy, like White, Strathern, Zelizer, others in Argentina and Chile, etc.). Final l y, on my less Luhmann, and Serres.

Emerging Market Societies Series

Questions for Salvatore Babones, Series Editor

Salvatore Babones answers a few questions about a new series he is editing for Edward Elgar Publishing on “Emerging Market Societies”

How did you get this opportunity? research universities have the same experience of going from Since the moment I was awarded famine to flood in just a couple tenure (and no longer had to years. worry about my own future) I've been thinking about what people So I decided to do something with tenure can do to make the about the problem. Many career trajectory from PhD to publishers are eager to piggy- tenure go more smoothly for back on the expertise that senior coming generations. It seemed academics can provide. The to me that a major stumbling problem is that most academics block wa s the chal lenge of don't want to put in the work to Salvatore Babones is an getting a first authored book develop junior authors. If I can a ssociate professor of published. First book publishing be very frank, it's much easier sociology and social policy at seems more like a lottery than a just to commission your already- the University of Sydney. He process. If an acquisitions editor successful friends to write books. writes on comparative at a major university press (who I decided I wanted to work with international development likely doesn't have a PhD and is junior authors to help them and on quantitative methods not even a sociologist) happens prepare for tenure or for the social sciences. His to like your topic, you win. habilitation. When I most recent book is Methods Otherwise, you struggle. approached Alex Pettifer, the for Quantitative Macro- editorial director of Edward Comparative Research (Sage, In fact, I made tenure on the Elgar Publishing, with a proposal 2014). ba sis of jour nal ar ticles. to work hand-in-hand with Immediately afterward, I found junior scholars he was thrilled I have a mandate to acquire the floodgates had opened. and immediately commissioned at least three books a year by Instead of begging people to the series. junior academics. The consider my proposals, I had people are as much a focus of publishers asking me to write Who do you have in mind as this series as the topics. books for them. It's not just me. contributors? Most post-tenure academics at !16 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Ideally, I'm looking for people topics to redefine themselves chapters in draft, as per a PhD who have finished their PhDs as experts on broader topics thesis and have succeeded in getting and regions. For example, a (6) Assist authors with editing the academic jobs but who have person who wrote a PhD full draft manuscript before not yet published sole- disser tation on fer tility submission for review authored books. There's some decision-making in Vietnam flexibility in this model, but might be encouraged to use (7) Select appropriate peer the goal of the series is to help this publishing opportunity to reviewers and manage the review people through to tenure, and establish herself as an expert process in fact I would be happy to on women's empowerment in (8) Advise authors on responses to serve as a tenure reviewer for emerging Asia. It is ver y reviews and final manuscript authors in this series. What I unlikely that books in this preparation want to do is to make sure that series will be merely revised enthusiastic people aren't lost versions of PhD thesis. They (9) Write a brief forward for each to the profession due to being will be research-based books book that contextualizes it in the thrown on their own resources that make bold statements series in their first jobs. I'm sure about broad societal processes. (10) Approach jour nal book that I wasn't the only one who How do you envision the work review editors to arrange at least had a tough time in my first two reviews of each book five years a s an a ssistant process? In shor t, I intend my professor. I will work much more closely relationships with authors in with the authors of these What kind of topics? the series to be mentoring books than is the usual relationships, not merel y The books in this series will practice for series editors. I publishing relationships. shine a light on the economic am not interested in sociology of some of the larger "acquiring" books. I am What should those interested do at emerging market countries and interested in developing the this point? regions. Individual titles will careers of junior scholars. cover either large, systemically Toward this end, I have made a Be in touch with me at important emerging market commitment to the publishers [email protected]. I am societies that are of wide that I will follow a detailed happy to talk to any pre-tenure interest (China, India, Brazil, ten-step management plan: scholars, including PhD Russia) or integrated economic students who ha ve not yet regions in which individual (1) Actively seek out promising finished their dissertations. The countries ha ve enough in new academics at the beginnings book series will run for at least of their careers common to suppor t their three years, and assuming it is being analyzed as a group (the (2) Walk them through the successful it will almost certainly Chinese diaspora, southeast differences in logic behind article be renewed, so I'm happy to Asia, the Middle East, sub- and book publishing plan for the long term. I will be Saharan Africa). Each book holding meetings with potential will focus on a highly-visible (3) Work with them to produce authors at the ASA meetings in book proposals (each with one aspect of the economic life of San Francisco and the ISA focus society or societies. sample chapter) meetings in Yokohama. Of Topics to be covered could course, I am also available to include all aspects of economic (4) Help authors (and the meet by phone with those who sociology and social policy. publisher) decide whether or not are unable to attend these these proposals merit further meetings. I really am eager to I will be encouraging authors development meet and talk to a s many in this series to think beyond (5) Read and comment on enthusiastic up-and-coming as their narrow PhD dissertation possible!

!17 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Meet Your Council: Graduate Student Representative Lindsey Ibanez

Lindsey is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at The Ohio State University

the conflicts and paradoxes the study for two reasons: 1) that inevitably arise. precarious employment is common in the developing When and how did you come to be world, and it is becoming more interested in economic sociology? common in the US; and 2) in a I had been reading work by context where there is no economists for my master's meaningful social safety net, thesis in Latin American finding employment gains even Studies at the University of more urgency for low-income Chicago, and I took a course urban workers, and in a in the policy school taught by a context where job-finding Brazilian economist. It was assistance is not forthcoming, illuminating to study poverty, networks should be even more inequality, trade liberalization, impor tant. My project is and development from an informed and inspired by the How do you employ economy into economist's perspective, but work of Granovetter, Wellman, your way of thinking about and the assumptions and models Lin, Sandra Susan Smith, analyzing the world? used did not always seem to Mario Small, Alexandra Marin, and others. I have long been interested in jibe with 'reality' as I saw it. I development, both social and sought to study economic In addition, I am part of a economic. My thesis work issues in a way that honors the project studying food examined the power relations inherent messiness of human insecurity in Nicaragua, led by between sel lers (milk decision-making. At Ohio Kammi Schmeer and Barabara producers) and buyers (a State I was introduced to Piperata. Sociologists do not processing company), and how economic sociology through focus much on the food these relations shaped local Tim Bartley's graduate seminar system, perhaps due to the development. In the process, I on the topic. I appreciated the traditional division of labor became fascinated by the careful attention that between sociology and rural tension between self-interest economic sociologists pay to sociology, but it is a fascinating and social obligations. Why do cultural meanings and sector that has changed rapidly we act sometimes in others' interpersonal relations, and in recent decades. Changes in interests and sometimes only how these relate to networks the food sector have shaped in our own? This is the and institutions. migration, urbanization, and fundamental philosophical What is your current work obesity, among other concern that underlies my focusing upon? phenomena. I also am part of a current work. Thus, to my research team, led by Steve mind 'economy' represents My PhD dissertation examines Lopez and Vinnie Roscigno, how we go about meeting our how people mobilize their that is studying how the Great own needs and wants while at personal networks to find Recession ha s affected the same time forming and employment in urban residents in Central Ohio, and preserving relationships with Nicaragua. I chose a high- how they have responded. others, and how we manage po ver ty, high- Since most of my research underemployment context for takes place in far-flung sites,

!18 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Meet Your Council: Graduate Student Ibanez, cont. Representative Adam Goldstein I'm surprised by how much this project has taught me Adam is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at UC, Berkeley about my home city and the people who live here. about ma ss -par ticipator y Does your current work connect financial activity in an era of to what you've done prior, or is it rising insecurity. This project has going into any new directions? evolved since it was hatched, but On the surface of it, dairy it grew initially out of an interest farmers, food insecurity, the in tr ying to understand the US recession, and job demand- side dynamics contacts are not closel y underl ying the mid-2000s related. But the things I've housing market bubble. learned from my earlier work I am also working on a line of inform my current work; for research on the financial services example, my thesis project industry (with Neil Fligstein), an taught me to pay careful analysis of the housing bubble attention to institutional and the penal state (with When and how did you come to be arrangements and the Brenden Beck), and an analysis interested in economic sociology? incentives they generate. of financialization in U.S. higher Generally, I am interested in I first became interested in education (with several other po ver ty, inequality, and economic sociology a s an Berkeley graduate students). mobility, and al l of my undergraduate student. Marc projects are connected to Of far greater interest to section Schneiberg opened my eyes to these concerns. I decided to members, I ha ve also been the field. His courses and pursue job finding as a topic scoping venues for the section mentorship set me down the because in a market society, party in San Francisco this path of pursuing research in this people derive their sustenance summer. area. primarily from paid work. Does your current work connect to Thus, access to employment What is your current work focusing what you've done prior, or is it going directly affects the outcomes upon? I care about as a sociologist. into any new directions? My current work re volves Both. I haven't been at this game While my pre vious work around a constel lation of for very long, but I can see my mainly involved ethnographic questions at the intersection of interests branching. Economic methods, my current work the sociology finance, sociology embraces such a rich incorporates other stratification, and urban and dynamic topical domain. methodological approaches sociology. I am interested in how There are always interesting new and analytical techniques, institutional changes associated questions to tempt one's such a s qualitative- with the rise of finance have attention. So like many young comparative analysis and reshaped various socio-economic scholars, my research agenda network analysis. And, for me, domains, and how organizations, seems to oscillate between a 5- working collaboratively with communities and households year plan and something that other researchers is 'new.' respond to these changes often. looks more like a random walk. ********************************* My disser tation project *********************************** ********************************* addresses a series of questions *********************************

!19 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

! Models of Production that Have Transformed the World ! of Work (Palgrave-MacMillan, 2013) ! ! Thomas Janoski and Darina Lepadatu The past century of production was dominated by Fordism and ! Taylorism, but how do we make sense of global production today? This book takes a panoramic view of the new theories of production: post- ! Fordism, flexible accumulation, McDonaldization, Waltonism, Nikeification, Gatesism and Siliconism, shareholder value, and lean ! production with Toyotism. The authors argue that lean production in a ! somewhat expanded version presents three variations: Toyotism (the full model), Nikeification (off-shored plants lacking teamwork) and ! Waltonism (the merchandising form that presses for off-shoring). While all three share strong elements of "just in time" inventory through supply ! chain management, they differ in how teamwork and long-term ! philosophies are valued. This critical review of dominant established theories shows how the contemporary division of labor is structured. The ! authors also preview the newly emerging "additive" or 3-D production ! process. ! !Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global ! Economy (Harvard University Press, 2014) ! Saskia Sassen Soaring income inequality and unemployment, expanding populations of the displaced! and imprisoned, accelerating destruction of land and water bodies: today’s socioeconomic and environmental dislocations cannot be fully understood! in the usual terms of poverty and injustice, according to Saskia Sassen. They are more accurately understood as a type of expulsion—from professional! livelihood, from living space, even from the very biosphere that makes! life possible. This hard-headed critique updates our understanding of economics for the twenty! -first century, exposing a system with devastating consequences even for! those who think they are not vulnerable. From finance to mining, the complex types of knowledge and technology we have come to admire are used! too often in ways that produce elementary brutalities. These have evolved into predatory formations—assemblages of knowledge, interests, and outcomes! that go beyond a firm’s or an individual’s or a government’s project. Sassen! draws surprising connections to illuminate the systemic logic of these expulsions. The sophisticated knowledge that created today’s financial “instruments”! is paralleled by the engineering expertise that enables exploitation of the environment, and by the legal expertise that allows the world’s have-nations to acquire vast stretches of territory from the have-nots. Expulsions lays bare the extent to which the sheer complexity of the global economy makes it hard to trace lines of responsibility for the displacements, evictions, and eradications it produces—and equally hard for those who benefit from the system to feel responsible for its depredations.

!20 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Polity’s Series in Economic Sociology

Questions for Jonathan Skerrett, Editor

non-specialists/students. Coupled holistic overview which a non- with key events like the financial specialist wouldn’t be able to crisis, it was clear that this was gather from individual research going to be a growth area both in monographs or journal articles. terms of suppl y (academic And of course there are enquiry) and demand (students conflicting ideas and approaches wanting to take classes on these in any area of academic enquiry issues). which do not remain static, so the books look at the directions in What led to the decision to produce a which each subfield is developing: new series of books specificay? what does economic sociology have to offer next? The field has grown very broadly to cover a lot of bases – economic What volumes are currently sociologists have turned their available? gaze in many directions! Content- wise, this offers great potential to Se ven titles are currentl y What inspired Polity to commission explore in a series of books how published, covering a broad range. more books in economic sociology? scholarship is coalescing around There are titles on key traditional key substantive topics and ideas. economic sociology topics, such There were two angles to this. On A series enables books to take a as Money and Credit by Bruce the one hand, economic sociology specific focus, though still broad Carruthers and Laura Ariovich was a growing field, and it has enough to be able to draw on a lot and Markets by Patrik Aspers. remained so – the growth of the of varied literature and insights, Then there are titles on the Economic Sociology section of showing the discipline in action. broader political economic the ASA is one of the most In terms of our aim for these systems that pose some of the consistently strong, from 15th books to bridge the gap between biggest questions in economic largest section in 2003 to 7th scholarship and the classroom, a sociology, such a s Global largest section in 2013. It is a key series of shorter, more in-depth Capitalism by Miguel Centeno sub-discipline within 21st-century books best fits the bill. and Joseph Cohen, and Economy sociology which we want to and State by Nina Bandelj and reflect in our publishing. What can readers expect to find in the Elizabeth Sowers. books? From the other end of the Two more recent titles look at equation, ideas from economic Each of the books offers an core approaches to studying the sociology have increasingly been overview of the scope of the area social life of the economy: picked up in the public sphere – of enquir y (such a s the Francesco Duina’s Institutions outside of academia, people have institutional approach to and the Economy and David been waking up to what economic economics) and of the key Knoke’s Economic Networks. sociology has to say about how literature that has shaped that Applying an economic sociology the world works. It is exciting subfield. This gives contextual lens to a central dimension of when mainstream media and grounding for students new to the social life – the world of work – commentators start to talk about area, or a recap to others wishing the latest book book is Labor, the things that sociologists have to refresh their knowledge. But Economy, and Society by Jeffrey been paying attention to for a this is only the starting point: the Sallaz. long time, and as a book publisher books engage with the latest we’re looking to make the developments and bring that What are some of the topics you are connection between those two cutting-edge work into the overall considering for the future? spheres: academy and engaged portrait of the subfield, offering a

!21 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Projects are under way or in Could interested authors approach you discussion on topics such as the with ideas, and if so, how should they economic sociology of go about that? de velopment, wealth, financialization, alternative Visit the Polity website where you economies and the informal wil l find contact details economy. But a s an e ver- (www.politybooks.com). It’s always developing field, I expect that in a pleasure to hear about new ideas the coming years there will be a which could fit the format of what range of issues which seem we are commissioning in this embryonic at the moment which series, or more broadly. may well become a new turn in ************************************* economic sociology.

!22 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

The New Fiscal Sociology Workshop

Conversation between Isaac Martin, Ajay Mehrotra, and Monica Prasad, Workshop Organizers; Questions by Paul James Morgan start we were pleasantl y surprised by how many established scholars were interested in coming together to discuss their mutual interest in the histor y of fiscal policy. At that first conference, many participants admitted that they did not see themselves and their work as part of a particular subfield -- one that we have since the conference referred to as the “new fiscal sociology.” But they al l seemed to agree that there were important connections surrounding their work that Ajay Mehrotra, Monica Prasad, & Isaac Martin dealt with fundamental issues about the causes and How did organizing this workshop commiserate about the difficulty consequences of how come about? Who got the idea? How of communicating to others what communities raise revenue. did the three of you end up all three of us were convinced We’ve kept this in mind as coaborating as co-organizers? about--how exciting tax history we’ve recruited participants can be, and how central it is to to our annual graduate Monica: The three of us had all social science. And we often student workshop -- we try to individually worked our way to talked about how we wished we look for people with interests an interest in taxes in graduate had had just a modicum of that might not immediately school. For me, what did it was training in graduate school in fit the conventional the discovery that Donald Duck fiscal sociology, so we didn’t have understanding of field, but helped to form the American tax to figure it all out ourselves. So that comport with what we state, and the realization that in that’s what we are trying to do find interesting about the all of my sociology courses we with this workshop, give history of tax and spending had never once talked about the graduate students from around policies. social effort that makes it seem the countr y the ver y ba sic natural to ask citizens to part building blocks. Isaac: We should add that a with a third to a half of their grant from the ASA Fund for income for the common good. Ajay: Monica ha s nicel y the Advancement of the So we were al l individual l y summarized the beginnings of Discipline made the first of excited about taxes, but alone in the conference that led to our these workshops possible in our excitement. And then we edited volume and the 2007. Subsequent workshops met each other on the subsequent set of graduate were funded by the National conference circuit. In those student workshops that followed. Science Foundation and the earl y years we would I would just add that from the Social Science Research

!23 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Council, but the success of the other that we all want to keep Ajay: Isaac’s last point is first ASA-funded workshop is the argument going. absolutely critical. Now that par t of what made those we have had seven workshops, proposals credible. Ajay: I completely agree with we have built a community of Isaac, and would only stress a inquirers, all at different stages Could you describe this workshop couple of points that he and in their academic careers. from the point of view of Monica have made. First, we And, as a result, we have a organizers; what topics are like to bring together as part of group of scholars who covered, who is invited to submit the annual workshop people probably thought they were materials, or anything else that is with different disciplinary working on esoteric topics relevant for students and faculty? backgrounds who are (like we did when we were in intellectually curious about grad school), but who can look Isaac: The purpose of the fiscal policy, and who are workshop, broadl y, is to to a large and growing cohort planning to work in that area of people who share their encourage the development of in some fashion. I don’t think a research community of interests and intellectual our goal is to convince curiosity about fiscal policy. scholars working on public everyone to study tax history finance and society. From the (at least not explicitly). Rather, Isaac: Of course, this group is beginning we opened the we want to help students and also an eager audience for workshop to doctoral students postdocs think about the work on these issues by other (and the occasional postdoc) connections between their scholars who ha ve not f rom fields a s various a s interests and what we see as a attended the workshop. The anthropology, cla ssics, burgeoning scholarl y goal is not a closed clique, but education, histor y, law, conversation. The second a sufficient critical mass to political science, and sociology. thing we are trying to do is start a big and noisy scholarly At first we focused ver y build an intel lectual conversation that has lots of specifically on taxation. That’s community in the way that room for everyone to jump in. still our emphasis, but I think Isaac has explained. it’s fair to say that in recent More generay, how does research years we also have been paying What would you say have past in taxation fit into economic increasing attention to public participants gained by attending sociology work more broadly? debt and other non-tax forms the workshop? What are some promising research of public finance. avenues? Isaac: One thing they have We made a bet early on that gained is a chance to read and Isaac: Economic sociology is the most scholarly progress discuss some classic texts in well known for illuminating would come from finding the the field; another is a chance the social conditions that scattered scholars who work to have their work discussed enable market exchange to on these issues and getting by a group of peers who may work; fiscal sociology is the them to realize that they were ha ve a lot of substantive branch of economic sociology focused on a common set of knowledge of their particular that studies the other, non- questions. We’re tr ying to topic but who approach it market part of the modern cultivate a research community f rom a wide variety of mixed economy. If you like, that includes people who are disciplinary backgrounds. I you could say that fiscal interested in a common set of think the most important sociology is about the social problems, intellectually diverse thing they ha ve gained, embeddedness of the public enough that we’re guaranteed honestly, is the chance to meet budget. to disagree about some things, each other. and friendly enough with each Monica: The curious nature of taxation in the U.S.

!24 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 continues to generate to the continued vibrancy of conditions does it produce fascinating work, and there is economic, political, and acquiescence? I am interested some brilliant research being historical sociology. in these questions because I do done on this by current not think we yet ha ve an graduate students. To me the Isaac: The old fiscal sociology adequate theory of the social most exciting and stil l was interdisciplinary, too. If and political conditions that relatively unexplored research you read the classic essays by permit a democratical l y avenue seems to be the role of scholars such a s Rudolf governed society to sustain taxation in de velopment. Goldscheid, E.R.A. Seligman large-scale redistribution. There is a hypothesis that and Joseph Schumpeter, you’ll Given the mounting evidence foreign aid undermines see that “fiscal sociology” that market inequality may development by undermining wasn’t supposed to be the come at a high cost for society, tax regimes--the “aid curse,” name for an academic I think one of the most people call it. Is this true? If discipline, it was the name for impor tant questions for so, how do you reorient an approach to public finance economic sociology is the foreign aid to a void this that took society and history question of how to redistribute outcome? It is an intellectually seriously. in a way that can be socially exciting issue as well as one How does this discussion on topics/ and politically sustained. with important substantive issues/questions, together with the Monica: What Isaac said. implications. And there is the theme of the workshop relate to start of a research tradition Given that economic your own research, past, present sociologists have thoroughly that is focusing on trying to and future? understand tax compliance and demonstrated over the last two tax evasion, a central issue for Ajay: As the legal historian in decades the necessity of the social science and again one the group, my interests have state to the proper functioning with impor tant policy revolved mainly around how of the market, the next implications. conceptions of fiscal policy question is, how do you get have changed over time. I’m people to finance that state? Ajay: As the non-sociologist in generally interested in tracing Under what conditions do they the group, I should defer to how the United States, for decide that they will refuse to Monica and Isaac on this example, has been able to do so--and with what question. But I will say that develop a robust system of consequences? Certainly these from the start we have tried to direct and progressive questions are not just f rame the “ne w fiscal taxation. I’ve learned a great academic questions in the sociology” a s a tr ul y deal f rom f riends and contemporary world. interdisciplinar y project. col lea gues in sociology, Suestions for Further Reading Although most of the political science, and participants in our workshops economics, and I’ve tried to Isaac Martin, Ajay Mehrotra, have been sociologists (not incorporate those lessons into Monica Prasad (eds.), The New surprisingly given the moniker my reinterpretations of how Fiscal Sociology, Cambridge we have used), we have always our current tax system came University Press, 2009 had a critical mass of other into being. disciplines, including Joseph Schumpeter, The Crisis occasional students from the Isaac: Most of my research is, of the Tax State, 1918 professional schools of law, in one way or another, about business, and public policy. I tax policy and social order, Edwin Seligman, Essays in think it is this disciplinary very broadly construed. Under Taxation chapter 1, “The diversity and breadth that has what conditions does taxation Development of Taxation,” helped us make a contribution produce conflict? Under what 1905

!25 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014

Section Officers Chair, Nina Bandelj, University of California, Irvine ChairElect, Greta Krippner, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Past Chair, Vicki Smith, University of California, Davis SecretaryTreasurer, Delia Baldassarri, New York University ! Council Members (end term) Jennifer Bair, University of Colorado, Boulder (2016) Tim Bartley, The Ohio State University (2014) Jens Beckert, Max Planck Institute (2014) Adam Goldstein (Student Member), University of California, Berkeley (2014) Lindsey Ibanez (Student Member), Ohio State University (2015) Yuval Millo, Leicester University, UK (2014) Sarah Quinn, University of Washington (2015) Frederick Wherry, Yale University (2016) ! Webmaster Craig Tutterow, University of Chicago http://www.asanet.org/sectionecon/econ.cfm ! Newsletter Editors Tamer Elgindi, University of California, Irvine Harsh Jha, University of California, Irvine Scott Mitchell, University of California, Irvine Paul James Morgan, University of California, Irvine Taylor Nelms, University of California, Irvine Anne Schwichtenberg, University of California, Irvine

!26 ASA Section Newsletter Volume 13, Issue 2, March 2014 ! Section Committees ! Nominations Committee Chair, Vicki Smith, University of California, Davis Yuval Millo, Leicester University Frederick Wherry, Yale ! Institutional History Committee Chair, Sarah Quinn, University of Washington Alya Guseva, Boston University Brian Sargent, Northwestern

Please visit the Economic Sociology and Political Economy Community! Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EconSociology Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/EconSociology LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Economic-Sociology-Political-Economy-4898466 Tumblr: http://econsociology.tumblr.com Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/118037426499271127133/118037426499271127133/posts

!27