accounts: a newsletter of economic sociology Official publication of the Economic Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association

Edited by Kieran Healy (Arizona) and Alexandra Kalev (Princeton) Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005

This issue leads off with some thoughts on the future role of economic sociology from Section Chair Nicole Woolsey Biggart. We then have three pieces following up on Marc Ventresca and Peter Levin’s article from the last issue: Jens Beckert and Charles Smith reply, and Ventresca and Levin respond. Maja Magdalena Biernacka gives us a research report from Poland and we preview the Economic Sociology sessions from the upcoming ASA meetings. This issue marks the end of the editors’ second term at the helm of accounts: we thank everyone for their lively contributions, and hope that our readers will continue to submit essays and opinion pieces to our successors! — The Editors. From the Chair Nicole Woolsey Biggart of data, failure to formulate and test hypothe- ses, and ahistoricism. We got excited and en- Twenty years ago economic sociology was a couraged ourselves to study their territory — stance more than an area of sociological in- the economy — using our many methods, qual- quiry. Sociologists were united more by their ity data sources, and historical sensibilities. opposition to the intellectual imperialism of Our journals and seminars are evidence of how economics which was extending its domain into far we have come. studies of the family, education, and other What I don’t think we anticipated a gener- topics historically the territory of sociology. ation ago was the move of economic sociology Economists were not acknowledging the contri- into the undergraduate classroom. I am heart- butions of sociologists, indeed hardly acknowl- ened and a little amazed at the spread of lib- edged we existed. eral arts programs that take a broad view of the Economists, as a publicly visible and pow- economy, markets, organizations, and business erful discipline, may not have cared what soci- now being offered to undergraduates. These ologists thought, but we certainly cared about programs vary, but for the most part they are them. Modern economic sociology was spurred designed for students seeking a broader educa- on in important ways by our largely one-sided tion than popular business or economics ma- conversation with economics. We attacked jors offer, although they typically include the their methodological individualism, their lack prerequisites for graduate business school ad-

Contents of this issue: Smith responds to Ventresca and Levin . 4 Reply from Ventresca and Levin . . . . . 5 From the Chair ...... 1 Econ Soc at the asa ...... 6 Beckert responds to Ventresca and Levin 3 Consulting Cadre Dilemmas in Poland . 7 Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 2 missions, such as microeconomics, statistics, ogy could extend itself into the domain of pub- and calculus. lic discourse and policy analysis in examining UC Davis started the Organization Studies labor markets, the global economy, marketiza- program over a decade ago, and while it is a so- tion, and all manner of economic life. There ciology major, it draws liberally from history, was little in Washington or at the World Bank anthropology, economics, and psychology for that we couldn’t contribute to. We would have its coursework. It gives a student interested in a President’s Council of Socio-Economic Advi- pursuing a business career a broad understand- sors! ing of the social underpinnings of capitalism, Although the White House hasn’t called me economic development, globalization, and firm yet, there is a growing body of economic soci- activity. ology from institutional, network, and cultural Duke University’s Markets and Manage- perspectives that has intellectual and policy im- ment Program, directed by sociologist Ken portance. A few of us have participated in Na- Spenner, is Duke’s largest certificate program tional Academy of Science committees and on and has 500 undergraduates enrolled and over other public bodies that are interested in our al- 2000 alumni. It draws on the strengths of ternative views on economic development, la- Duke’s economic sociology faculty and includes bor markets, and environmental issues. With courses in the Chinese Economy,and Organiza- time, and perhaps our own desire to see it hap- tion and Global Competition. pen, economic sociologists routinely might have Linda Stearns was recruited recently by a seat at the table at policy discussions. Do we Southern Methodist University to establish a really want to play this role? How could we get Markets and Culture program in sociology that involved in think tanks and other policy insti- promotes the study of the social bases of eco- tutions? I think this would be a great topic for nomic behavior. SMU students are required to our section to discuss, and I invite you to write take a foreign language and are encouraged to to the editors of accounts with your views. study abroad. While I would very much like a seat at White Cornell undergraduate sociology majors House social and economic policy discussions, can focus on economic sociology, and Brown I would consider it a real victory if at some fu- University is in the process of establishing ture moment those discussions were guided by a multi-disciplinary Commerce, Organization a former sociology undergraduate who under- and Entrepreneurship program. A generation stood economic activity in a broadly social sci- of students is learning a new way to think about ence way, someone who had sat in on a couple money, markets, and economic life. of our economic sociology courses. In our early enthusiasm as an area of in- Nicole WoolseyBiggart is Professor of Man- tellectual inquiry twenty years ago I remember agement and Sociology at the University of Cal- much discussion about how economic sociol- ifornia, Davis.

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 3 Uncertainty and Ambiguity in Markets: A response to Ventresca and Levin Jens Beckert (Dequech 2001; Beckert/Dequech forthcoming) is characterized by the possibility of creativity In their article “Information and Ambiguity and non-predetermined structural change. The in Markets,” Marc J. Ventresca and Peter Levin list of possible events is not predetermined or (accounts Vol. 5/1, Fall 2004) point to a re- knowable ex ante, as the future is yet to be cre- cently developing strand of work in economic ated. Ambiguity, as defined by Ventresca and sociology: The concern with actor’s categories, Levin, can be seen as a special case of the dou- criteria and conventions by which ambiguous ble contingency type of uncertainty: Actors act situations become actionable. This work on according to a plurality of logics that are possi- meaning producing - and thereby also value- bly even contradictory,making it impossible for producing - categorization I take as an impor- Alter Ego to predict Ego’s course of action. tant and fascinating field of study for economic For this type of uncertainty, however, the sociology. What I take issue with is the au- same holds true as does for other types of un- thors’ proposed juxtaposition of the concept certainty: Only by reducing ambiguity (uncer- of ambiguity to an approach in economic so- tainty) through networks, institutions, power, ciology that starts from the problem of uncer- norms, or cognitive scripts can actors find a ba- tainty. According to the two authors the work sis from which to assess the situation and be- reviewed by them would “turn attention from come willing to engage in market exchanges uncertainty reduction” (p.2). Contrary to this where they have to put their money at risk. Cat- position I argue that the concern with “cate- egorization, conventions and orders of worth gory infrastructures” (p.2) can very well be un- are forms of cognitive scripts that function as derstood as a special case within a paradigm mechanisms of reduction of uncertainty. that sees the handling of uncertainty as the cru- The correspondence of the work on cat- cial vantage point of economic sociology (Beck- egories, criteria and conventions with uncer- ert 1996, 2002). tainty as a paradigmatic vantage point of eco- Uncertainty, contrary to risk, refers to situ- nomic sociology becomes also apparent from ations where intentionally rational actors can- some of the works discussed by Ventresca and not calculate probabilities of outcomes. This Levin themselves. Olav Velthuis, for instance, brings into question the maximizing assump- explains the market anomaly that galleries sell tion of economic theory since actors do not all paintings of the same size of an artist for the know unambigously how to allocate their re- same price, despite quality differences that are sources to obtain optimal outcomes. Uncer- known to the artist and to the gallery, by the tainty has two prime sources: it can stem from need to reduce uncertainty. If galleries would unpredictable changes in the natural or insti- act differently this “would create a sense of dis- tutional environment or it can have its ori- order in a market where uncertainty already gins in the unforseeable choices of other actors reigns” (Velthuis 2003: 194). The economics of (double contingency). Although uncertainty is convention (reviewed in Biggart/Beamish 2003) closely linked to the issue of information, not identifies the pragmatic task of any economy in all uncertainty can be undone by the search for the need of coordination of action. Economic further information. Fundamental uncertainty exchange has its precondition in interpretations

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 4 that “lead to a sort of ’agreement’ about what References is to be done - in the sense that what each per- Beckert, Jens. 1996. “What is sociological about economic sociology? son does meets the expectations of the others on Uncertainty and the embeddedness of economic action.” Theory and Society 25: 803-840. whom he or she depends” (Storper/Salais 1997: Beckert, Jens. 2002. Beyond the Market. The Social Foundations 16). Such conventions are directly connected to of Economic Efficiency. Princeton: Press. Beckert, Jens and David Dequech. Forthcoming 2005. “Risk and the issue of uncertainty: “Conventions emerge Uncertainty.” In Jens Beckert and Milan Zafirovski (eds.). International both as responses and as definitions of uncer- Encyclopedia of Economic Sociology. London und New York: Rout- ledge. tainty” (ibid.). Özgecan Koçak (2003) starts Biggart, Nicole W. and Thomas D. Beamish, 2003: “The Eco- from the problem of uncertainty in her analy- nomic Sociology of Conventions: Habit, Custom, Practice, and Routine in Market Order.” Annual Review of Sociology 29: 443-464. sis of valuation processes in exchange markets. Dequech, David. 2001. “Bounded Rationality, Institutions, and Finally,Kieran Healy (1999) frames his work on Uncertainty.” Journal of Economic Issues 35: 911-929. Healy, Kieran. 1999. “The emergence of HIV in the U.S. blood the organization of blood supply as the “man- supply: Organization, obligations and the management of uncertainty.” Theory and Society 28: 529-558. agement of uncertainty.” Koçak, Özgecan. Social Orders of Exchange: Effects and Origins of Social Order in Exchange Markets. Unpublished dissertation. Stan- ford University. My critical remarks are in no way intended Storper, Michael and Robert Salais. 1997. Worlds of Production. to question the significance of the findings dis- The Action Framework of the Economy. Cambridge, Ma.: Press. cussed by Ventresca and Levin. I only question Velthuis, Olav. 2003. “Symbolic meanings of prices. Constructing the authors’ theoretical assertion that the work the value of contemporary art in Amsterdam and New York galleries.” 32 181 215 on categorization would demonstrate the ”lim- Theory and Society : - . its of the uncertainty paradigm” (p.2). To the Jens Beckert is Director at the Max Planck contrary: it demonstrates the centrality of this Institute for the Study of Societies (MPIfG) in paradigm for economic sociology. .

Response to Ventresca and Levin Charles W.Smith 1981. While this book did not receive over- whelming sociological interest when it was pub- lished, it did sell over 50,000 copies and has It was heartening and gratifying to see in been widely cited. Ambiguity is similarly cen- Marc Ventresca’s and Peter Levin’s article the tral to my 1989 book, Auctions: The Social attention given to the role played by ambiguity Construction of Values, which is cited and ref- in markets. It was also somewhat disappoint- erenced heavily in over half of the articles cited ing, however, that one would conclude from by Ventresca and Levin. It is an issue that other reading their article and their citations that the sociologists and anthropologists (e.g., Appadu- role played by ambiguity in markets is a recent rai, Dimaggio, Geertz, and Zelizer to name sociological discovery. While I wholeheartedly just a few) have also been engaged with for approve the attention given the many recent many years. Moreover, largely in response studies engaged in such projects, the impor- to these works, the importance of ambiguity tance of ambiguity within markets of varying within market processes has been incorporated sorts has been recognized for over two decades. into at least two encyclopedia/dictionary ac- It is the central issue in my own Mind of the counts of auction markets within the last few Market: A Study of Stock Market Philosophies, years. I make this point not only out of some Their Uses and Their Implications published in

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 5 personal umbrage, but also out of professional innovation is normally offset by incorporating concern. I realize that it is practically impossi- elements of what have been done before. Rein- ble, and often not worthwhile, to properly lo- venting the wheel may bring with it personal cate present work in relation to everything that gratification, but it does not advance a disci- has been done before. On the other hand, it is pline. professionally counter-productive to ignore ear- lier work that bears directly on present work. Charles W. Smith is Professor of Sociology Whatever may be lost in one’s ability to claim at Queens College, CUNY.

Reply Marc Ventresca and Peter Levin1 kets in this vision capture value in the object, value in how others think about the object, and We appreciate the comments from two distin- value across different kinds of objects. Auctions guished colleagues. The gist of our accounts in their various guises render price. Ambiguity essay is to reconnect studies of market dynam- takes place prior to the auction — in deciding ics with work on institutions and organizations who should come, what the objects ‘are,’ what that treats managing ambiguity as a primary kind of auction to use. This is the institutional project, in contrast to reducing uncertainty. We arsenal that transforms ambiguity into uncer- may well be “speaking prose” together with tainty, into risk, to constitute “price.” In our Prof. Beckert — in the concern for how dif- reading, “uncertainty” is already an outcome ferent conceptions of uncertainty and ambigu- of institutional and practical work — the re- ity lead to substantially different “problems” sult of efforts to domesticate the unknowable for research and practice. Beckert (1996) ex- and to create tools of one sort or another for amines contemporary economic usages of “un- managing, inter alia, risk. Ambiguity, on the certainty” to suggest that much contemporary other hand, indicates the presence of competing work on uncertainty-as-risk neglects key intu- and often incommensurable logics in policy and itions found in both Keynesian and Knightian practice (Espeland 1998). Our point: The anal- notions of uncertainty. His notion of double ysis of uncertainty reduction is important and contingency develops the insight that “uncer- useful, but may well under-specify the infras- tainty can be reformulated as a situation of tructure work that occurs to make uncertainty double contingency, i.e., a situation in which reduction a feasible set of activities (Barry and actors make their actions reciprocally depen- Slater 2002; Heimer 2001). We advocate for ap- dent on each other” (1996: 805), and he iden- proaches in economic sociology that re-embed tifies four categories of social devices by which in ambiguity and often contested logics the nat- people can reduce uncertainty: 1) tradition, uralized “uncertainty reduction” starting point habit, and routines; 2) norms and institutions; of much social network and institutional analy- 3) structures; and 4) power (1996: 827ff, see also sis. White 1992). Smith points to lacunae in our citations. Prof. Smith’s work on auctions also distin- Biggart (this issue) argues that economic so- guishes risk, uncertainty, and ambiguity. Mar- ciology has shifted from a start up to plural 1We thank Kieran Healy, Sandra Kalev, and Mark Zbaracki for wisdom.

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 6

traditions that draw broadly on general sociol- Society 25: 803-840. ogy. In this spirit, the intent of our essay was Barry A. and D. Slater. 2002. “Technology, politics, and the mar- ket: An interview with Michel Callon.” Economy and Society 31(2): to refocus on ambiguity in markets, with direct 285-306. grounding to work on organizations, occupa- Espeland, Wendy Nelson. 1998. The Struggle for Water: Poli- tions, and work. This to extend the “canon” tics, Rationality, and Identity in the American Southwest. University of in economic sociology (where the colleagues Chicago Press. Heimer, Carol. 2001. “Cases and Biographies: An Essay on Rou- Smith notes and his own work rest securely), tinization and the Nature of Comparison.” Annual Review of Sociol- not at all to neglect the rich legacy literatures. ogy 27(1): 47-76. We claim not novelty at the cost of respect for White, Harrison C. 1992. Identity and Control: A structural the- prior work, but rather an effort to point to how ory of social action. Princeton: Princeton University Press. work on ambiguity at the intersection of eco- nomic and organizational sociology can extend Mark Ventresca is University Lecturer at recent studies of market dynamics. Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Pe- ter Levin is Assistant Professor of Sociology at References Barnard College and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Beckert, Jens. 1996. “What is sociological about economic sociology? Uncertainty and the embeddedness of economic action.” Theory and Columbia University.

Economic Sociology at the ASA Meetings

This year’s ASA meetings in Philadelphia will have a large number of sessions of interest to economic sociology section members We summarize them here. This year’s Program Chair is Thomas D. Beamish, University of California Davis. Invited Panel: “Economic Sociology in the Next Decade and Beyond.” Organizer: Thomas D. Beamish, University of California Davis. Panelists: Richard Swedberg, ; Viviana Zelizer, Princeton University; Marc Ventresca, Said Business School and Wolfson College, Uni- versity of Oxford; Marion Fourcade-Gourinchas, University of California Berkeley; Ruth Aguilera, Department of Business Administration, Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Paper Sessions: “Exchange, Interaction, and Interpretation in Economic Transactions” Orga- nizer: Marc Ventresca, Said Business School, Oxford University. · “The Organization of Markets.” Organizer: Timothy J. Dowd, Emory University.” · “Macro Processes and Transnational Trends.” Organizer: Greta Krippner, UCLA. · Bruce Carruthers, Northwestern University, has organized five panels: “Cultural Approaches to the Economy” · “Economic Innovation and Change: Micro and Macro Perspectives” · “Economic Networks and Relations” · “Moral Boundaries and the Economy” · “Sociology of Money, Credit, and Banking.” Refereed Roundtables: We have five refereed roundtables, on the topics of “Case Studies of Exchange Relations” · “Case Studies of National Markets” · “Theorizing Transnational Economic Trends” · “Theory Building in Economic Sociology.”

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 7 Consulting Cadre Dilemmas in Poland Maja Magdalena Biernacka The notion that an employer might have a formative effect on the employee hardly ever Foreign investors might initially calculate works that smoothly here, especially if you try that the local workforce shall be operated by to implement it in the elite segment of the na- a supply and demand press button and get a tion’s workforce. Superficial obedience and surprise if their premise turns out to be wrong. consensus is something this society has exer- “Do not fall in love with the company,since the cised almost to perfection and many are still company shall never fall in love with you!” — practicing — but if one observes them closely echoes the warning heard from an employee re- much denial and not much true enthusiasm is sponding to a survey, being part of a recently found underneath. completed project on the work ethic in business consultancy companies in Poland. This quali- “Membership?! I belong to my tative research was conducted in 1999–2001 in wife and that’s all when it comes selected business consultancy companies, both to my membership or participa- multinationals and small local enterprises. tion or belonging.” Although the stereotype of the workaholic yuppie appears in the Polish media, our re- Pretending is sometimes surviving. Getting spondents struggle hard not to be perceived so. involved in an explicit discussion over a task Typically, no matter how much they sacrifice with the CEO or so is not customary. Open re- they would not call themselves “workaholics.” fusal to perform a nonsense task is sometimes Few admit they have ever suffered symptoms observed, but many are not assertive enough to of what they call workaholism. The rest resist do this. Most respondents use a back-door for- being classified as rat-racers. Cruising in be- mula, playing for time and waiting till the su- tween their ambitions, desires, search for self- periors change their minds, or saying one thing fulfillment and employers’ requirements, they and doing another. That is what they say having do their utmost to draw a strict borderline be- warmed up after a few minutes of conversation tween professional and private life and that is a with the interviewer. They replace their stud- fully conscious self-concept defense action. ied politeness with a more problematic “real Company identity is wearing alarmingly me.” Subsequently, there is a backlash on the thin. The respondents are astonishingly ex- premises — “What is it all about? Where is plicit: “Do I identify with the company? What this researcher really from? Is this survey re- does that mean? How can I possibly identify ally anonymous?” For many,“real” means “pri- with a structure or with a mass of individuals vate.” “Membership!?,” jokes one young pro- I will never get to know in person? Provided fessional, “I belong to my wife and that’s all we define identification as loyalty — then, OK when it comes to my membership or participa- — I do identify, which means I do my best to tion or belonging.” On a daily basis some di- be loyal.” Or, they make a careful selection: “I versify the “me” structure into the real private identify with the services we provide, with some “me” as opposed to the “9 to 5 me” or “7–11 colleagues . . . I identify (do not identify) with yuppie-like me” participating in what they seem X’s policy, priorities, etc. Or: “the company’s to perceive as a corporate masquerade which is name shall look impressive in my CV and that’s over when one heads back home. all about it.” Impediments to communication are stag-

Accounts Vol. 5/2, Spring 2005 8 gering and no one seems to be at fault. In- siastically subject anyone (or be subjected him- ternal company surveys barely solve the intra- self) to the latest fad efficiency formula. So company communication shortage problem — would the HR people. Compared to today, as reported by the employees. The researcher things were much simpler clear cut a decade was told: “You are playing a very useful role ago. A positive myth of the barely known US here; What a relief, I was craving to talk about and Western Europe trumped a negative one of my problems to someone; or: I thought you had the Soviet Union, accompanied by much curios- been sent by the company. Anyway, even if it is ity and hurrah for the new. Certainly,Poles have so — that is fine with me, let them know what made substantial progress preparing themselves I think about them!” And as for the burden for what the future may hold. But now, having of work motivation, many employers have long experienced the new system a significant per- been and are still experiencing similar obsta- centage still tend towards euroscepticism rather cles to productivity in Western Europe and the than euroenthusiasm. There is a lot of work US as they currently do in Poland. No wonder ahead. “Tell me one thing, please. Are they outsourcing has recently become trendy world- afraid of us? We have no bad intentions! We wide. Deep down, employers find it obvious want to be friendly. We want to socialize. How that MBA personnel handbook formulae may come no one seems to be willing to respond not be so easily implemented. Employee satis- when I say ‘hello’ in a pub? Isn’t that weird?” faction policies are given little credit and per- wonders an expat who has spent three years in ceived as sheer window-dressing. Likewise, the Poland. average CEO would much rather abandon the Maja Magdalena Biernacka is a researcher HR director on the premises and then let his with The Warsaw Management Academy of the hair down somewhere in Curacao than enthu- Society of Economic Enterprises.

accounts is the newsletter of the American Sociological Association’s Economic Sociology Section and is edited by Kieran Healy (Univer- sity of Arizona, [email protected]) and Alexandra Kalev (Princeton University, [email protected]). Short essay contributions or proposals are strongly encouraged from our readers! Thanks to Kurt Hornik and Friedrich Leisch, authors of the Rnews style for LATEX.

Accounts