This long-awaited Second Edition continues to offer an accessible introduction to the way social arrangements affect economic activity, and shows that economic exchanges are deeply embedded in social relationships.

Understanding how society shapes the economy helps us answer many important questions. For example, how does advertising get people to buy things? How do people use their social connections to get jobs? How did large bureaucratic organizations come to be so pervasive in modern economies - and what difference does it make? How can we explain the persistence of economic inequalities between men and women and across racial groups? Why do some countries become rich while others stay poor? This book presents sociological answers to questions like these, and encourages its readers to view the economy through a sociological lens.

Chapter 1: The Embeddedness of Markets
Markets and Their Alternatives
Markets and Their Preconditions
The Embeddedness of Markets
The Consequences of Markets
The Variety of Capitalisms
Globalization
Outline of the Book
Chapter 2: Marketing and the Meaning of Things
Things and Meaning
Commodities as Gifts
Consumerism
Consumers and Debt
Advertising
Diversity and Consumerism
Consumerism and Globalization
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Organizations and the Economy
The Power of the Boss
Organizations around the Globe
Organizations and Internal Labor Markets
The Organizational Context for Conflict
Workplace and Personal Life
The Formation of an Organizational Economy
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Networks in the Economy
What Is a Network?
Why Networks Matter
Individual Networks
The Importance of Networks in Markets
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Banking and Finance
What Does a Financial System Do?
Finance and Development
Regulation and Deregulation
Disintermediation
Innovation and Status
Household Finance
Globalization and Finance
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Economic Inequality
Inequality in Perspective
Inequality and Efficiency
Explaining Recent Trends in Income Inequality
Globalization
Race, Gender, and Inequality
Gender in the Labor Market
Race in the Labor Market
Race, Mortgage Discrimination, and Wealth Inequality
Race, Gender, and Price
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Economic Development
Economic Development Defined
From The Wealth of Nations to the Washington Consensus
Sociological Perspectives on Development
Conclusion
Chapter 8: Conclusion

Bruce Carruthers Ph.D. University of Chicago 1991. Areas of interest include historical and comparative sociology, economic sociology, sociology of law and sociology of organizations. Carruthers has written three books, City of Capital Politics and Markets in the English Financial Revolution (Princeton University, 1996), Rescuing Business: The Making of Corporate Bankruptcy Law in England and the United States (Oxford, 1998), and Economy/Society: Markets, Meanings and Social Structure (Pine Forge Press, 2000). His current research projects are on the evolution of credit decision-making as a problem in the sociology of trust, and worldwide changes in bankruptcy law in the era of a globalized world economy. He has had visiting fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He is methodologically agnostic, and does not believe that the qualitative/quantitative distinction is worth fighting over.