Cornell sociologist co-edits in-depth handbook on economic sociology

The relatively young field of economic sociology -- sociological perspectives applied to economic phenomena -- has been growing by leaps and bounds. A new book, The Handbook of Economic Sociology, second edition (Princeton University Press, 2005) provides a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of the burgeoning field.

Co-edited by Cornell professor of sociology Richard Swedberg, also the associate director of Cornell's Center for the Study of Economy and Society, the new 736-page edition is a complete revamping of the 1994 edition because the field has grown so much. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the chapters are new or have new authors.

"Economic sociology is the study of the roles that phenomena such as social relations, culture, politics, law and gender play in economic decisions," explains Swedberg, also the author of Max Weber Dictionary (Stanford University Press, 2005), Principles of Economic Sociology and Max Weber and the Idea of Economic Sociology (both Princeton, 2003 and 1999, respectively).

The book is organized around three sections with a total of 30 chapters. The first involves general concerns, such as the scope and history of the field. The second focuses on the sociology of economic institutions and economic behavior, and the third focuses on the penetration of economic activity with noneconomic sectors of society.

The new edition, intended for students and scholars in the field, includes greater focus on international and global concerns, chapters on institutional analysis, the transition from socialist economies, organization and networks, and the economic sociology of the ancient world.

The book is co-authored by Neil J. Smelser, a former professor of sociology at the University of California-Berkeley and former director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

The book is available both in paperback and hardback.

-- Susan S. Lang

A look at the Career Mystique in the United States

"The career mystique is the myth that workers march lockstep through life from education to employment to retirement in a fixed sequence," says Phyllis Moen, the Ferris Family Professor of Life Course Studies Emerita at Cornell, former director of the Cornell Careers Institute and now the McKnight Presidential Chair of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. "Such lock-step arrangements no longer fit the realities and risks of contemporary living, yet the roles, rules and regulations spawned by the career mystique remain in place."

Based on eight years of research at Cornell, largely funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Institute on Aging, Moen, with co-author Patricia V. Roehling, professor and chair of the psychology department at Hope College, documents the mismatch between traditional work structures and modern workers, many of whom are part of two-career couples trying to cope with the often-conflicting demands of work and family. The authors argue for innovative policies that catch up with modern realities, such as insecurities and risks of a global economy, strains and double demands on the job and at home, and uncertainties and ambiguities around retirement.

The Career Mystique calls for rethinking and redesigning educational, occupational and retirement paths so that they are more flexible and integrative. They call for occupational paths that acknowledge rather than ignore personal and family goals and obligations, educational goals throughout adulthood and opportunities for midlife career changes.

"To build such flexibility and integration requires recognition of the career mystique as a historical invention, a powerful but obsolete metaphor that can, and should, be reinvented," says Moen. "All that is required is the will and the imagination to do so."

-- Susan S. Lang