This paper asserts the importance of adopting a theoretical approach based on embeddedness which assumes that the economic actor is not an atomized and utilitarian individual, but is in fact positioned within specific historical and institutional contexts in various social networks. This approach is based on Polanyi’s critically debated contribution which allows for an empirical study of the diversity of institutional structures and of the significance of configurations of insertion within different social networks. Such diversity results from the double movement of disembeddedness and re-embeddedness caused by the spread of constantly emerging market opportunities, and by the importance held by the historically and culturally different selective processes of path dependency in the construction of the institutions of social regulation and of the socialized preferences of economic actors. Within these processes attention is given to the transformation of social systems based on reciprocity (household, kin, social capital networks, etc.), associations of shared interests, forms of economic organization (in a plurality of coexisting “economies”), unequal distribution of power, and political intervention. This approach may show its usefulness in its application to both contemporary transformations in welfare systems and to the practices of adaptation to increasing employment insecurity and household instability in European societies. In order to simplify the analytical typologies the paper will focus predominantly on the relationship between demographic processes and occupational transformations and examine the role played by the most visible lines of path dependency of long duration (familism, industrial culture, class, and local traditions). The concluding section examines the extent to which these persistently diverse processes of change are curbed by European aims and converging policies.

Ghezzi, S., Mingione, T. (2007). Embeddedness, path dependency and social institutions: an economic sociology approach to interpret convergence and differences in European societies. CURRENT SOCIOLOGY, 55(1), 11-23 [10.1177/0011392107070131].

Embeddedness, path dependency and social institutions: an economic sociology approach to interpret convergence and differences in European societies

GHEZZI, SIMONE;MINGIONE, TERENZIO ROBERTO
2007

Abstract

This paper asserts the importance of adopting a theoretical approach based on embeddedness which assumes that the economic actor is not an atomized and utilitarian individual, but is in fact positioned within specific historical and institutional contexts in various social networks. This approach is based on Polanyi’s critically debated contribution which allows for an empirical study of the diversity of institutional structures and of the significance of configurations of insertion within different social networks. Such diversity results from the double movement of disembeddedness and re-embeddedness caused by the spread of constantly emerging market opportunities, and by the importance held by the historically and culturally different selective processes of path dependency in the construction of the institutions of social regulation and of the socialized preferences of economic actors. Within these processes attention is given to the transformation of social systems based on reciprocity (household, kin, social capital networks, etc.), associations of shared interests, forms of economic organization (in a plurality of coexisting “economies”), unequal distribution of power, and political intervention. This approach may show its usefulness in its application to both contemporary transformations in welfare systems and to the practices of adaptation to increasing employment insecurity and household instability in European societies. In order to simplify the analytical typologies the paper will focus predominantly on the relationship between demographic processes and occupational transformations and examine the role played by the most visible lines of path dependency of long duration (familism, industrial culture, class, and local traditions). The concluding section examines the extent to which these persistently diverse processes of change are curbed by European aims and converging policies.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
embeddedness; culture; entrepreneurship; kin network; merket; path dependency; reciprocity; social institutions
English
gen-2007
55
1
11
23
none
Ghezzi, S., Mingione, T. (2007). Embeddedness, path dependency and social institutions: an economic sociology approach to interpret convergence and differences in European societies. CURRENT SOCIOLOGY, 55(1), 11-23 [10.1177/0011392107070131].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/5210
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