DOCSLIB.ORG

1 Princeton University Sociology 541: Economic

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 Princeton University Sociology 541: Economic PRINCETON UNIVERSITY SOCIOLOGY 541: ECONOMIC SOCIOLOGY SOCIAL TIES, CULTURE, AND ECONOMIC PROCESSES Fall 2010 Wednesdays 11 AM-2PM Wallace Hall 190 Professor Viviana Zelizer Telephone: 8-4557 [email protected] ================================================================== = In compressed form, this six-week course provides an introduction to economic sociology seen not as a subordination of sociology to economics but as the sociological explanation of economic phenomena. As it has developed over the past twenty-five years, economic sociology has concentrated on two activities: first, the extension of economic models to social phenomena rarely examined by economists, and second, the study of contexts that constrain the operation of economic processes as usually understood by economists. In line with these two preoccupations, economic sociologists have focused on firms and markets. This course emphasizes a third activity, the search for alternative accounts of phenomena that most specialists have explained using economic concepts and theory. In particular, it seeks sociological explanations of production, consumption, and distribution. After a general orientation to economic sociology as a whole, the course explores economic activities in an unconventionally wide range of settings including households, informal sectors, gift economies, and consumption. The course culminates with the analysis of compensation systems as a point of confrontation between conventional and alternative accounts of economic phenomena. REQUIREMENTS: 1. Readings: (a) Required readings: All students must read in preparation for class discussion and reports, (b) Recommended readings identify valuable paths to and from the week's topic. Readings will be available in the Sociology Department mailroom. You should return them immediately after reading or photocopying. If you are able to download copies of some readings from the web, please feel free to do so. 2. Reports: Over the course of the six weeks each student prepares a total of three written reports. The first two reports consist of short critical essays concerning three or four of the current week’s readings, of no more than 1,000 words; we will work out student responsibilities for sessions and particular readings in class. These reports serve as a basis for class presentation and discussion; students should circulate their reports electronically to the class by no later than 5 PM the Monday preceding the class 1 session. Depending on class size, we may organize formal responses to these statements by other class members. The reports should focus on the following issues; a. what question is addressed by the author(s)? b. what is the significance of that question for key issues in the field? c. what are competing answers to that question? d. how well does the author address that question, in terms of logic and methodology? e. what would be a different, valid way of addressing the same question, preferably one you regard as superior? (Note: Depending on course enrollment we will modify the number and kind of assignments during our first session). The third report, also of no more than 1,000 words, is due on Wednesday November 10. It will take up one of the following three options: 1. A brief research proposal based on one of the seminar's subjects or another topic to be chosen in consultation with instructor. 2. A national tradition in economic sociology. 3. Intellectual biography of one of the course’s authors. For topics 2 or 3 the report should include: a. an exposition of the tradition or author b. at least one illustration confirming your description c. a brief critique, indicating strengths and weaknesses d. a tentative explanation of this work's distinctive properties If possible, identify changes either in the work of the author or in the national tradition. 2 WEEK 1 (September 22) ANALYSES OF ECONOMIC PROCESSES Required: Neil J. Smelser and Richard Swedberg, "Introducing Economic Sociology," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp.3-25. Viviana Zelizer, “Pasts and Futures of Economic Sociology.” American Behavioral Scientist, 50 (April 2007): 1056-69. Alejandro Portes, Economic Sociology. A Systematic Inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, chapters 1 and 2; pp. 1-26; chapter 7, pp. 130-161. Paul DiMaggio, "Culture and Economy," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, pp. 27-57. Brian Uzzi, “Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness,” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 35-67. Donald MacKenzie, Fabian Muniesa, and Lucia Siu. “Introduction,” in Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007, pp. 1-19. Recommended: Nina Bandelj, “The Global Economy as Instituted Process.” American Sociological Review 74 (February 2009): 128-149. Gary Becker, Accounting for Tastes. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1996, chapter 7, "The Economic Way of Looking at Life." Michel Callon, “The Embeddedness of Economic Markets in Economics,” in The Laws of the Markets, edited by Michel Callon. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998, pp. 1-57. Marion Fourcade-Gourinchas and Sarah Babb, “Neoliberalism in Four Countries,” American Journal of Sociology 108 (2002):533-79. Robert Gibbons, “What is Economic Sociology and Should any Economists Care?” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (Winter 2005): 3-7. Mark Granovetter, “The Impact of Social Structure on Economic Outcomes,” The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (Winter 2005): 33-50. Paul Ingram and Peter W. Roberts, “Friendships among Competitors in the Sydney Hotel Industry,” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 387-423. Greta Krippner and Anthony S. Alvarez, “Embeddedness and the Intellectual Projects of Economic Sociology.” Annual Review of Sociology 33(2007): 219-40. Peter Levin, “Culture and Markets: How Economic Sociology Conceptualizes Culture,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 619 (2008): 114-129. 3 WEEK 2 (September 29) VARIETIES OF ECONOMIC TRANSACTIONS Required: Marion Fourcade and Kieran Healy, “Moral Views of Market Society,” Annual Review of Sociology 33 (2007): 285-311 Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, Work Under Capitalism. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 1998, chapter 1, “How To Work Things Out," pp. 1-20; chapter 2, "Worlds of Work," pp.21-35. Charles Smith, "Auctions: From Walras to the Real World," in Explorations in Economic Sociology, edited by Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1993, pp. 176-192. Paula England and Nancy Folbre, “Gender and Economic Sociology,” in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition, edited by Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005, pp. 627-49. Nicole Woolsey Biggart, and Rick Delbridge, “Systems of Exchange,” Academy of Management Review 29 (2004): 28-49. Viviana Zelizer, “Circuits in Economic Life,” European Economic Sociology Newsletter 1: November 2006: 30-5. Viviana Zelizer, “Money, Power, and Sex,” 18 Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 303 (2006). Recommended: Mitchel Y. Abolafia, Making Markets. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996, Introduction and chapter 1, "Homo Economicus Unbound: Bond Traders on Wall Street." Nicole Woolsey Biggart, “Banking on Each Other: The Situational Logic of Rotating Savings and Credit Associations,” Advances in Qualitative Organization Research (2001) 3: 129-53. Asaf Darr, “Gifting Practices and Interorganizational Relations: Constructing Obligation Networks in the Electronics Sector.” Sociological Forum 18 (2003): 31-51. Paul Ingram and Xi Zou, “Business Friendships,” Research in Organizational Behavior 28 (2008):167- 184. Alya Guseva, and Akos Rona-Tas, “Uncertainty, Risk, and Trust: Russian and American Credit Card Markets Compared,” American Sociological Review 66 (2001): 623-46. Kieran Healy, “Organizational Altruism: The Case of Organ Procurement, “ American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 387-404. Karin Knorr Cetina and Urs Bruegger, "Global Microstructures: The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets," American Journal of Sociology 107 (2002): 905-950. Michèle de La Pradelle, Market Day in Provence, Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006. Laurel Smith-Doerr and Woody Powell, “Networks and Economic Life,” in The Handbook of Economic 4 Sociology, 2d edition, 2005, pp. 379-402. WEEK 3 (October 6) TRANSACTION MEDIA Required: Viviana Zelizer, "Sociology of Money," in Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes, editors, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 15: 9991-4. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2001. Kieran Healy, Last Best Gifts. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, chapter 1 “Exchange in Human Goods,” and chapter 6, “Managing Gifts, Making Markets.” Eric Helleiner, "One Market, One People? The Euro and Political Identities,” in Before and Beyond the Euro, edited by P. Crowley. London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 183-202. Caroline Humphrey, “’Icebergs, Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia.” Anthropology Today 7 (April 1991): 8-13. Richard H. Thaler, “Mental Accounting Matters,” Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 12 (1999): 183- 206. Loïc Wacquant, “A fleshpeddler at work: Power, pain, and profit in the prizefighting economy,”
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Managers of the Arts Managers Theal S
    Managers of the Arts Managers theAl s Careers and opinions of senior administrators of U.S. art museums, symphony orchestras, resident theaters, and local arts agencies. Paul DiMaggio Research Division Report #20 ~ National Endowment for the Arts seven ~ocks press Publishers Washington, D.C./Cabin John, Md. Managers of the Arts is Report # 20 in a series on matters of interest to the arts community commissioned by the Research Division of the Na­ tional Endowment for the Arts. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DiMaggio, Paul. Managers of the arts. (Research Division report; no. 20) "Published for the National Endowment for the Arts." Includes index. 1. Arts administrators--United States. 2. Arts surveys--United States. I. National Endowment for the Arts. II. Title. III. Series: Research Division report (National Endowment for the Arts. Research Division); 20. NX765.D56 1987 700’ .92’2 87-9719 ISBN 0-932020-50-X (pbk.) Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Research Division, under Grant NEA-02-4050-001. Edited by Jane Gold Designed by Dan Thomas Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, Michigan Manufactured in the United States of America First edition, September 1987 Seven Locks Press Publishers P.O. Box 27 Cabin John, Maryland 20818 301-320-2130 Books of Seven Locks Press are distributed to the trade by National Book Network Inc. 4720A Boston Way Lanham, MD 20706 Contents I ntrod uctio n vii Executive Summary 1 1. Backgrounds, Recruitment, and Careers 11 2. Rewards and Expectations 25 3. Training 41 4. Professional Participation and Attitudes Toward Professionalism 52 5.
    [Show full text]
  • Dimaggio Et Al
    From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on Digital Inequality* Paul DiMaggio, Eszter Hargittai, Coral Celeste, and Steven Shafer Report prepared for the Russell Sage Foundation. Authors are from Princeton University except for Har- gittai, whose teaches at Northwestern University. Support from the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation (grant IIS0086143) and the Markle Foundation is gratefully acknowledged, as is instit- utional support from the Princeton Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies and Office of Population Re- search. This paper reflects the impact on the first author’s thinking of several helpful and provocative com- ments by participants at the Russell Sage Foundation Inequality project’s Harvard meeting in Summer 2001. From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on the Digital Inequality The Internet boosts immeasurably our collective capacity to archive information, search through large quantities of it quickly, and retrieve it rapidly. It is said that the Internet will expand access to education, good jobs, and better health; and that it will create new deliberative spaces for political discussion and provide citizens with direct access to government. In so far as such claims are plausible, Internet access is an important resource and inequality in Internet access is a significant concern for social scientists who study inequality. This paper reviews what we know about inequality in access to and use of new digital technologies. Until recently, most research has focused on inequality in access (the “digital divide”), measured in a variety of ways. We agree that inequality of access is important, because it is likely to reinforce inequality in opportunities for economic mobility and social participation.
    [Show full text]
  • Varieties of American Popular Nationalism.” American Sociological Review 81(5):949-980
    Bonikowski, Bart, and Paul DiMaggio. 2016. “Varieties of American Popular Nationalism.” American Sociological Review 81(5):949-980. Publisher’s version: http://asr.sagepub.com/content/81/5/949 Varieties of American Popular Nationalism Bart Bonikowski Harvard University Paul DiMaggio New York University Abstract Despite the relevance of nationalism for politics and intergroup relations, sociologists have devoted surprisingly little attention to the phenomenon in the United States, and historians and political psychologists who do study the United States have limited their focus to specific forms of nationalist sentiment: ethnocultural or civic nationalism, patriotism, or national pride. This article innovates, first, by examining an unusually broad set of measures (from the 2004 GSS) tapping national identification, ethnocultural and civic criteria for national membership, domain- specific national pride, and invidious comparisons to other nations, thus providing a fuller depiction of Americans’ national self-understanding. Second, we use latent class analysis to explore heterogeneity, partitioning the sample into classes characterized by distinctive patterns of attitudes. Conventional distinctions between ethnocultural and civic nationalism describe just about half of the U.S. population and do not account for the unexpectedly low levels of national pride found among respondents who hold restrictive definitions of American nationhood. A subset of primarily younger and well-educated Americans lacks any strong form of patriotic sentiment; a larger class, primarily older and less well educated, embraces every form of nationalist sentiment. Controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and partisan identification, these classes vary significantly in attitudes toward ethnic minorities, immigration, and national sovereignty. Finally, using comparable data from 1996 and 2012, we find structural continuity and distributional change in national sentiments over a period marked by terrorist attacks, war, economic crisis, and political contention.
    [Show full text]
  • Center for Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector
    CENTER FOR INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND THE INFORMAL SECTOR University of Maryland at College Park Center Office: IRIS Center, 2105 Morrill Hall, College Park, MD 20742 Telephone (301) 405-3110 l Fax (301) 405-3020 RECOMBINANT PROPERTY IN IN EAST EUROPEAN CAPITALISM September, 1994 David Stark Working Paper No. 133 This publication was made possible through support provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development, under Cooperatlve Agreement No. DHR-0015-A-00-0031-00. The views and analyses in the paper do not necessarily reflect the official position of the IRIS Center or the U.S.A.I.D. Author: David Stark, Department of Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism David Stark Department of Sociology Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 tel: 607-255-1419 FAX: 607-255-8473 e-mail: [email protected] Research for this paper was supported by grants from IRIS (Institutional Reform and the Informal Sector) and from the Project on Corporate Governance of the World Bank/Central European University. My thanks to Ronald Breiger, Rogers Brubaker, I&z16 Bruszt, Christopher Clague, Ellen Comisso, Paul DiMaggio, Geoff Fougere, Istvan Gabor, Peter Gedeon, Gernot Grabher, Szabolcs Kern&y, Janos Kollo, Jrinos Koruai, JBnos LukBcs, L&z16 Neumann, Claus Offe, Eva Palocz, &OS Rona-Tas, Monique Djokic Stark, Marton Tardos, Eva Voszka, and Harrison White for their criticisms of an earlier draft. Recombinant Property in East European Capitalism David Stark Cornell University Executive Summary for IRIS The starting premise of this paper is that the greatest obstacle to understanding change in contemporary Eastern Europe is the concept of transition.
    [Show full text]
  • Inventing Opera As “High Culture”
    For many people opera represents (whether this is understood posi- tively or negatively) the very embodiment of “high culture.”Yet lately there have been signs that its status is changing, as opera becomes more and more a feature of everyday cultural life.1 What I want to explore in this chapter is whether these changes have now made it possible to describe opera as popular culture. Inventing Opera as “High Culture” In order to fully understand what has been happening to opera in recent years, I think it is first necessary to examine something of the history of opera. Traditionally, opera is said to have been invented in the late sixteenth century by a group of Florentine intellectuals known as the Camerata.2 However, according to musicologist Susan McClary, Despite the humanistic red herrings proffered by Peri, Caccini [members of the Camerata], and others to the effect that they were reviving Greek performance practices, these gentlemen knew very well that they were basing their new reciting style on the improvisatory practices of con- temporary popular music. Thus the eagerness with which the humanist myth was constructed and elaborated sought both to conceal the vulgar origins of its techniques and to flatter the erudition of its cultivated patrons. (McClary, 1985: 154–5) Although there may be some dispute over the intellectual origins of opera, there is general agreement about its commercial beginnings. “Expecting Rain”: Opera as Popular Culture? 33 Significantly, the opera house was the “first musical institution to open its doors to the general public” (Zelochow, 1993: 261). The first opera house opened in Venice in 1637: it presented “commercial opera run for profit .
    [Show full text]
  • Second-Level Digital Divide: Mapping Differences in People's Online Skills*
    Eszter Hargittai TPRC 2001 (Draft) Second-Level Digital Divide :: 1 Second-Level Digital Divide: Mapping Differences in People's Online Skills* Abstract Much of the existing approach to the digital divide suffers from an important limitation. It is based on a binary classification of Internet use by only considering whether someone is or is not an Internet user. To remedy this shortcoming, this project looks at the differences in people’s level of skill with respect to finding information online. Findings suggest that people search for content in a myriad of ways and there is a large variance in how long people take to find various types of information online. Data are collected to see how user demographics, users’ social support networks, people’s experience with the medium, and their autonomy of use influence their level of user sophistication. Introduction Most of the literature on the digital divide focuses on the differences between the haves and have nots of the digital age, that is, the differences among those who have access to the Internet and other communication and information technologies and those who do not, or the differences among those who use these media and those who do not. While most reports identify differences among various segments of the population, over time studies emphasize the increasing diffusion of the medium among the population at large (see Rickert and Sacharow 2000 and Pew 2000a for gender; Austen 2000 for age, NTIA 2000 for race). As more and more people start using the Web for communication and information retrieval, it becomes less and less useful to merely look at demographic differences in who is online when discussing questions of inequality in relation to the Internet.
    [Show full text]
  • Public Attitudes Towards Cultural Authority and Cultural Diversity in Higher Education and the Arts
    Public Attitudes towards Cultural Authority and Cultural Diversity in Higher Education and the Arts Paul DiMaggio and Bethany Bryson Princeton University University of Virginia January 2000. Prepared for The Arts of Democracy: The State, Civil Society and Culture, ed. Casey Blake, Woodrow Wilson Center Press. We are grateful to John Evans, Richard A. Peterson, Tom Smith, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Blair Wheaton, and to members of the Princeton Sociology Department Summer Workshop on Empirical Research on Culture for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. DiMaggio and Bryson: Cultural Diversity and Cultural Authority ---1--- For much of the past two decades, controversy has rocked America’s universities and cultural institutions. Within the arts, well-publicized battles over controversial photographs, installations and performance pieces --- from the Robert Mapplethorpe controversy to the Brooklyn Museum affair --- pitted defenders of modernism and artistic freedom against champions of traditional values and public decorum.1 Within higher education, universities were castigated as preserves of “political correctness,” dominated by “tenured radicals” who sought to replace traditional western culture with an ill-formed goulash reflecting the preferences and identities of a broad array of ethnic, racial, gender and lifestyle special-interest groups.2 Many have noted that the quality of this debate has not been outstanding.3 Some influential critics have relied less on reasoned argument than on passionate accounts (the specifics of which often turned out to be distorted) of lurid cases of artistic license or political excess. Defenders of cultural institutions have often responded piecemeal to the particulars of specific attacks, or else have dispensed abstract pieties about artistic or academic freedom that fail to come to grips with critics’ charges.
    [Show full text]
  • Jessica Rose Kalbfeld
    Jessica Rose Kalbfeld New York University | Department of Sociology 295 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor | New York, NY 10012 www.jessicakalbfeld.com | [email protected] Education: 2020 (exp) PhD, Sociology, New York University Dissertation: “Social Distance in Spatial Proximity: How Neighborhood Context and Change Impacts Social Control in Local Communities” Committee: Delia Baldassarri, Patrick Sharkey, Paul DiMaggio (chair) 2018 MPhil, Sociology, New York University 2017 MA, Sociology, New York University 2014 MA, Applied Quantitative Research, New York University Thesis: “Neighborhood Whitening and the Implementation of Stop, Question, and Frisk in New York City” Thesis Advisors: Patrick Sharkey and David Greenberg 2007 BA, Gallatin School at New York University, summa cum laude Peer Reviewed Articles (* indicates equal contribution): Kalbfeld, Jessica. “Dispersing the Critical Cloud: Critical Mass and Affirmative Action.” Conditional accept at Law and Society Review Jones, Taylor*, Jessica Kalbfeld*, Ryan Hancock, and Robin Clark. 2019. “Testifying while Black: An Experimental Study of Court Reporter Accuracy in Transcription of African American English.” Language. Vol 95. Iss. 2. • “Court Reporters May be Writing Down Black Peoples’ Testimony Wrong.” by Leila Ettachfini. Vice News Online. May 23, 2019. • “When Justice is Deaf to How Some People Talk.” by John Eligon. New York Times. Print Edition Sunday Times. Page A21, January 27, 2019. Published online as “Speaking Black Dialect in Courtrooms Can Have Striking Consequences.” January 25, 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/us/black-dialect-courtrooms.html. • “Race, dialect, and the courtroom.” Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY Philly. February 1, 2019. https://whyy.org/episodes/race-dialect-and-the-courtroom/.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture and Cognition Author(S): Paul Dimaggio Source: Annual Review of Sociology, Vol
    Culture and Cognition Author(s): Paul DiMaggio Source: Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 23 (1997), pp. 263-287 Published by: Annual Reviews Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2952552 Accessed: 18/10/2010 10:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=annrevs. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Annual Reviews is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Annual Review of Sociology. http://www.jstor.org Annu.Rev. Sociol. 1997. 23:263-87 Copyright? 1997 byAnnual Reviews Inc. All rightsreserved CULTURE AND COGNITION Paul DiMaggio Departmentof Sociology,2-N-2 Green Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey08544; e-mail:[email protected] KEY WORDS: sociologyof culture, social classification,social cognition,schemata ABSTRACT Recentwork in cognitivepsychology and social cognition bears heavily on con- cernsof sociologistsof culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Technology and Cultural Goods*
    The Journal of Political Philosophy: Volume 10, Number 4, 2002, pp. 478–500 Survey Article: Digital Technology and Cultural Goods* KIERAN HEALY Sociology, University of Arizona HIS ARTICLE examines the implications of the Internet for the ownership, T distribution and consumption of cultural and expressive goods, broadly defined.1 By this I mean literature, music, visual and performance arts, libraries, archives, and the like. The growth of the Internet has affected many areas of life besides this one, of course. It has allowed the growth of new ways to associate with others, new ways to work and do business, new ways to be politically active, amongst many others.2 So why focus on cultural goods? It turns out that one of the main attractions of the Internet to ordinary users is its ability to deliver content over the network quickly and at zero cost. Literature, images of all kinds and archival materials are accessible to anyone with a network connection. Music is also easy to come by, and has been the most controversial (and popular) kind of cultural good exchanged so far. Video is available to those who—like many college students—have a lot of bandwidth and the knowledge to use it. In each case, however, the Internet’s technical capacity to move these goods around does not mesh easily with established legal practice, government policy or commercial interests. For many interested parties, the Internet’s most distinctive characteristic is a bug, not a feature. This makes cultural goods interesting and important. Being able to search for and freely download a novel, a few hours of music, or an entire film is both immediately appealing to many people and completely incompatible with how many corporations and artists now make their money.
    [Show full text]
  • Serving Citizens' Needs: Minimizing Hurdles to Accessing Government Information Online
    Serving Citizens’ Needs: Minimizing Hurdles to Accessing Government Information Online* Eszter Hargittai** http://www.eszter.com Sociology Department Princeton University This paper is a pre-print copy of the article that appeared in IT & Society available online at http://www.stanford.edu/group/siqss/itandsociety/v01i03/v01i03a03.pdf Abstract With the rapid spread of the Internet across society, government institutions are taking advantage of using digital technology to distribute materials to citizens. Is merely having a Web site enough or are there certain usability considerations to which site creators must adhere in order to assure efficient access to online materials? Here, I report on a project that looked at people’s ability to locate various types of content online. In particular, I focus on people’s ability to find tax forms on the Web. Findings suggest that people look for content in a myriad of ways and there is considerable variance in how long people take to complete this online task. Users are often confused by the ways in which content is presented to them. In this paper, I discuss two common sources of confusion in users’ online experiences with respect to locating tax forms online: 1. URL confusion; and 2. page design layout. In addition to describing these problem areas, I also suggest ways in which these two sources of frustration could easily be curtailed yielding less exasperating and more productive user experiences. * I would like to thank Paul DiMaggio for his insightful comments throughout this project, Stan Katz for his ongoing support, and Erica Field and John Robinson for helpful discussions.
    [Show full text]
  • SOCIUS Working Papers
    1 SOCIUS Working Papers Richard Swedberg “The Toolkit of Economic Sociology" Nº 4/2006 SOCIUS - Centro de Investigação em Sociologia Económica e das Organizações Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão Universidade Técnica de Lisboa Rua Miguel Lupi, 20 1249-078 Lisboa Tel. 21 3951787 Fax:21 3951783 E-mail: [email protected] Web Page: http://pascal.iseg.utl.pt/~socius/index.htm 2 The Toolkit of Economic Sociology Richard Swedberg1 Prepared for SOCIUS, Lisbon, March 23, 2006 Economic sociology is a term that was rarely heard a decade ago but which has become quite popular again. Today sociology departments get ranked according to their prominence in this field, and a respectable number of articles and books that label themselves “economic sociology” appear every year. While the standard definition of economic sociology – the application of the sociological perspective to economic phenomena – shows that economic sociologists are primarily interested in analyzing the economy and its main institutions, a quick look at some representative studies show that these often include a political dimension in the analysis. This goes for the classics – Marx, Weber, Schumpeter – as well as for recent studies in economic sociology (e.g. Fligstein 1990, Evans 1995, Beckert 2004). To analyze what happens at the interface between politics and economics is clearly not the exclusive task of economic sociology; it also is something that e.g. political economy does. An important difference, however, is that political economy currently draws on a type of analysis that is deeply influenced by analytical economics. Political economy, in contrast to contemporary economic sociology, makes use of a variety of economic ideas, such as constitutional economics, game theory and so on.
    [Show full text]