On the instability of economic sociology’s condition

Abstract

The academic and conceptual mappings of economics and sociology, including the identification of a locus for economic sociology, was an important problem for various nineteenth century authors, who formulated theories that received harsh criticism in the 1930s by Parsons, who in his turn later carried on with considerable reformulation of his early group of theses, never settling matters in a completely satisfactory way. These problems were exacerbated, rather than resolved, by late twentieth century authors, namely those associated with “rational choice theory” and “new economic sociology”. The conceptual fluctuations and theoretical incoherence are further aggravated if we include the problem of academic divisions, not just between economics and sociology, but also considering historiography.