How does modern capitalism deal with the problems of conflict of interest in corporations such as Enron and Arthur Andersen? How is capitalism emerging in former state socialist societies? How can social networks among groups as diverse as immigrants, drug users and jazz musicians be used as a model for studying economic topics? What role do immigrants play in the American workplace?
These are the kinds of topics that faculty and students affiliated with the new Center for the Study of Economy and Society (CSES) at Cornell are pursuing. CSES focuses on the relatively new field of economic sociology -- the study of economic institutions and behavior, organizations and social networks. The center is based in the Department of So-ciology in the College of Arts and Sciences.
"As an academic discipline, economic sociology can broadly be defined as the analysis of economic phenomena with the help of concepts and methods that sociology has developed," said Victor Nee, director of the new center and the Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology at Cornell. "Markets, networks, corporations, property rights, gender, work and many other phenomena are part of what economic sociology studies," added associate director Richard Swedberg, who joined Cornell's faculty as professor of sociology this year from the University of Stockholm. "The CSES aims to foster Cornell's leadership in economic sociology through the training of students and the research of its faculty affiliates."
To celebrate CSES's first year, the center sponsored a symposium at Cornell Feb. 19, where top leaders in economic sociology addressed an array of important themes in the field. Speakers included Francis Fukuyama (Cornell '74), the Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, whose talk was titled "Still Disenchanted? The Modernity of Postindustrial Capitalism"; Neil Smelser, emeritus professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley; and Swedberg.
The interdisciplinary center coordinates a number of high-profile research projects funded by external entities, for which faculty and graduate students are active investigators. It also sponsors interdisciplinary working groups, which are open forums in which faculty and graduate students present new work in an informal, collegial atmosphere, a working paper series, courses in economic sociology, a seminar series and conferences. Its undergraduate concentration in business and organizations is very popular among undergraduates, said Nee.
"Our mission is to be an incubator for rising talent, new ideas and collaborative research in the quickly growing, exciting field of economic sociology," Nee said. On March 27 it will sponsor a conference on economics, culture and institution, and April 4 and 5 it will co-sponsor a conference on institutional change in East Asia.
More information on economic sociology and the Center for the Study of Economy and Society can be found at http://www.soc.cornell.edu/research/economic_ sociology.shtml.
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