Blackwell Reference Online

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“The economy” is a social institution that is constructed and reproduced through human action, as human beings collectively produce their conditions of survival and well-being. In sociological perspective, “the economy” is not reified as a thing or mechanism apart from human actions, interaction, and relationships. This definition of the economy guides sociological analysis of relationships between economic institutions and civilization – culture, ideology, art, law, religion, and prevailing forms of thought, feeling, and discourse. One sociological distinction is that between non-market societies and market societies as two broad categories of civilization. In the former, economic activities are embedded in cultural, social, and political institutions and limited by them. In market societies, the economy is clearly differentiated from such cultural, social, and political institutions, while at the same time it has powerful effects on them, creating a distinct form of civilization. In non-market societies , market institutions are secondary or absent, and production and distribution are primarily embedded in kinship and/or hierarchical power relationships among status groups. Economic activities are limited or “hedged in” by norms of institutions in which they are embedded. In early human societies, and still today in smaller societies, economic activities are inextricably linked ... log in or subscribe to read full text