What is Economic Sociology? What is embeddedness? How are markets made and where do markets come from? How do politics, networks and culture matter? What are the institutions of political economy? and How does capitalism differ among countries?

Well, our community is built to tackle these fundamental and fascinating questions, and we daily illuminate their particular angles and specific perspectives, benefiting from the cutting edge of scholarly knowledge in economic sociology and political economy.
But sometimes bird’s eye view and comprehensive survey are needed.

This concise and informing article by Ilan Talmud reviews contemporary trends in economic sociology, detailing how the emergence of the social embeddedness metaphor has led to various sub-disciplines in the field. Economic sociology depicts the market as a socially constructed feature, (a) structured by networks of social actors who compete, imitate, exploit, and cooperate with one another, (b) enabled and reproduced by social and political institutions according to (c) the basic rules of capitalist political economy, and (d) perceived and enacted by cognitive procedures and normative regimes entailing ideal types, professional language games, myths, and ritualistic processes.

This instructive article could easily be an intellectual point of departure to delve into the socio-political studies of the economy. And our community –  the global academic community of Economic Sociology and Political Economy – will competently and confidently serve you as a companion in this reflective journey.