The Architecture of Markets

An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century Capitalist Societies

Bibliographic Data

ID6524070
AuthorsNeil Fligstein (0000-0002-7049-6502)
Year2001
Pages288
Publication date2001-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueArchitecture of Markets (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
Open LibraryOL7755985M
ISBN9780691005225
LanguageEN
Citations received611

Addressing the unruly dynamism that capitalism brings with it, leading sociologist Neil Fligstein argues that the basic drift of any one market and its actors, even allowing for competition, is toward stabilization." "The Architecture of Markets represents a major and timely step beyond recent, largely empirical studies that oppose the neoclassical model of perfect competition but provide sparse theory toward a coherent economic sociology. Fligstein offers this theory. With it he interprets not just globalization and the information economy, but developments more specific to American capitalism in the past two decades - among them, the 1980s merger movement. He makes new inroads into the "theory of fields," which links the formation of markets and firms to the problems of stability. His political-cultural approach explains why governments remain crucial to markets and why so many national variations of capitalism endure. States help make stable markets possible by, for example, establishing the rule of law and adjudicating the class struggle. State-building and market-building go hand in hand." "Fligstein shows that market actors depend mightily upon governments and the members of society for the social conditions that produce wealth. He demonstrates that systems favoring more social justice and redistribution can yield stable markets and economic growth as readily as less egalitarian systems. This book will surely join the classics on capitalism. Economists, sociologists, policymakers, and all those interested in what makes markets function as they do will read it for many years to come."--BOOK JACKET

Business · Business & Economics · Capitalism · Capitalist or free market economies · Economic history · Economics · Economics - General · Free enterprise · General · Political economy · Social aspects · Sociological aspects · Sociology · United States · 1981-2001 · Aspect sociologique · Capitalisme · Economic conditions · Économie de marché · Économie politique · Finance