The Social Structures of the EconomyPolity, 22 apr 2005 - 263 pagina's Much orthodox economic theory is based on assumptions which are treated as self-evident: supply and demand are regarded as independent entities, the individual is assumed to be a rational agent who knows his interests and how to make decisions corresponding to them, and so on. But one has only to examine an economic transaction closely, as Pierre Bourdieu does here for the buying and selling of houses, to see that these abstract assumptions cannot explain what happens in reality. As Bourdieu shows, the market is constructed by the state, which can decide, for example, whether to promote private housing or collective provision. And the individuals involved in the transaction are immersed in symbolic constructions which constitute, in a strong sense, the value of houses, neighbourhoods and towns. The abstract and illusory nature of the assumptions of orthodox economic theory has been criticised by some economists, but Bourdieu argues that we must go further. Supply, demand, the market and even the buyer and seller are products of a process of social construction, and so-called 'economic' processes can be adequately described only by calling on sociological methods. Instead of seeing the two disciplines in antagonistic terms, it is time to recognize that sociology and economics are in fact part of a single discipline, the object of which is the analysis of social facts, of which economic transactions are in the end merely one aspect. This brilliant study by the most original sociologist of post-war France will be essential reading for students and scholars of sociology, economics, anthropology and related disciplines. |
Inhoudsopgave
Introduction | 1 |
The House Market | 15 |
Disposition of the Agents and the Structure of the Field of Reproduction | 19 |
The State and Construction of the Market | 89 |
The Field of Local Powers | 126 |
A Contract under Duress | 148 |
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100 Retired action advertising agents analysis architects banks blue-collar workers Bourdieu breeze blocks builders building subsidies bureaucratic calculation capital cent civil servants civil service client commercial companies competition constraints construction costs craftsmen Crédit Agricole cultural département director dispositions dominant Durif economic field effects example fact favourable firms France Provinces France function Gary Becker habitus homeowners housing policy Île-de individual industrial Infrastructures interests intermediate occupations INTERVIEWER investment Jacques Barrot linked loan logement logic Maison Bouygues Maisons Individuelles managers Ministry Mme F Monsieur Nationale owners ownership Paris particularly Phénix Pierre Pierre Richard planning plot position practices Prefect Raymond Barre regional regulations relations of force salesman salespeople salesperson sector single-family houses social social capital space staff strategies structure symbolic symbolic capital technical theory traditional Trans Union Nationale Valéry Giscard d'Estaing white-collar workers