: x2144
Professor: Biju Rao
Office: Fernald 19 (Attic)
: x2144
Monday 2-4, Wednesday 9-11, Friday 4-5, and by appointment. Stop
by my office to discuss ideas over
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How do the other social sciences view economic behavior? For instance, most human beings exchange gifts. Some neo-classical economists have seen this as an essentially irrational act which adversely affects economic efficiency. Anthropologists however have developed elaborate theories of gift exchange which view gifts as a way in which relationships within a community are preserved, and as an expression of status competition. Another example: Why does crime exist? Economists would argue that criminal activity is influenced by rational decisions where the prospective criminal weighs the costs and benefits of breaking the law. Thus, crime exists in part because the benefits of crime outweigh the costs. Sociologists, however, may argue otherwise, saying that every functioning society defines certain activities as "criminal" in order to construct "normal" behavior and thus permit a social order to be defined.
Thus, neo-classical economic theories are often at variance with the other social sciences, even when they study the same phenomena. This course will look at a variety of subjects and see how economists have studied them, and then contrast the economic perspective with points of view from sociology and anthropology. We will also try to examine to what extent economists have tried to incorporate ideas from the other social sciences, and whether there is room for more inter-disciplinary collaboration. Topics that we will study will include, Gift-Exchange, Crime, Money, Marriage, Ethnicity, Violence, and Commodities. To explore social theory links on the Web click here.
This is primarily a seminar and discussion course and everyone is required to do the readings before coming to class.
Requirements: Will be Announced in Class
Grade Breakdown:Will be announced.
Feb 6.
Introduction
Economic Conceptions of Human Behavior
Feb 11th
1) George Stigler - "The Development of Utility Theory," from Essays in the History of Economics, The University of Chicago Press, 1965, Pp: 66-155
Feb 13th
2) Lionel Robbins, Chapters 1 and 2 of An Essay on the Nature and Signigicance of Economic Science, Second Edition, MacMillan and Company Ltd., 1935, Pp:1-45
3) Gary Becker, "The Economic Approach to Human Behavior," Chapter 1 of The Economic Approach to Human Behavior, University of Chicago Press, 1976, Pp: 3-14.
Durkheim and Weber - Classical Social Theory
Feb 18th
4) Emile Durkheim, "What is a Social Fact," from The Rules of the Sociological Method, New York Free Press, 1982, Pp: 50-59
5) Raymond Aron, "Emile Durkheim," from Main Currents in Sociological Thought, Vol. 2, Pp: 11-34, and 59-69.
Feb 20th - 25th
6) Dennis Wrong, "Introduction" from Max Weber, Dennis Wrong (ed) Prentice-Hall, 1970, Pp:1-75.
7) Max Weber, "Basic Concepts of Sociology," 19-26, "The Ideal Type," Pp;27-31, "The Protestant Ethic" Pp: 33-38, from Max Weber, S.M.Miller (ed), Thomsas Crowell Company, 1963
Topics
Gifts and Exchange:
February 27
8) Marcel Mauss, The Gift, Chapter One Pp: 8-46
Chapter Two, Pp: 65-82
March 4th
9) Joel Waldfogel, "The Deadweight Loss of Christmas," American Economic Review, 1993
Dowries and Marriage
March 6th
10) Ursula Sharma, "Dowry in North India: Its Consequences for Women," from Patricia Uberoi (ed) Family, Marriage and Kinship in India, Pp:341-356
11) Vijayendra Rao, "The Rising Price of Husbands," Journal of Political Economy, August 1996, Pp:666-677
Violence
March 11th
12) Francis Bloch and V. Rao, "Terror as a Bargaining Instrument: Dowry Violence in Rural India," Williams College Mimeo, 1997.
March 13th
13) Robert J. Thornton, "The Shooting at Uitenhage, South Africa, 1985: The context and Interpretation of Violence," American Ethnologist, Pp217
Crime
March 18th
14) Gary Becker, "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," Pp; 1- 45
March 20th
15) Donald Black, "Crime as Social Control," From Towards A General Theory of Social Control, Vol 2, Pp; 1-27
Discrimination/Ethnicity
April 8th
16) Glenn Cain, "The Economic Analysis of Labor Market Discrimination," from Handbook of Labor Economics, Pp: 693-731
April 10th
17) Erving Goffman, "Stigma and Social Identity," from Stigma, Pp; 1-40
18) Elijah Anderson, "Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom,," from Streetwise, Pp; 207-236
Religion and Ritual
April 15
19) Laurence R. Iannaccone, "A Formal Model of Church and Sect," American Journal of Sociology , S241-S268, 1988
April 17
20) Emile Durkheim, "Religion and Ritual," from Emile Durkheim: Selected Writings, Anthony Giddens (ed), Pp: 219-238
April 22
21) Clifford Geertz, "Ritual and Social Change: A Javanese Example," from The Interpretation of Cultures, Pp: 142-169
Money
April 24
22) Viviana A. Zelizer, "The Marking of Money," from the The Social Meaning of Money, 1994. Pp; 1-36
23) Maurice Bloch, "The Symbolism of Money in Imerina," from Money and the Morality of Exchange, J. Parry and M.Bloch, (ed), 1989, Pp: 165-190
Commodities and Preferences
April 29
24) Thorstein Veblen, "Conspicuous Consumption," from The Theory of the Leisure Class, first published 1899, Penguin Books reprint, 1983, Pp: 68-101
May 1
25) Igor Kopytoff, "The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process," from The Social Life Things, Arjun Appadurai (ed), Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp: 64-91
26) Alfred Gell, "Newcomers to the world of goods: Consumption among the Muria Gonds," from The Social Life Things, Arjun Appadurai (ed), Cambridge University Press, 1988, Pp:110-137
Critique and Syntheses
May 6th
27) Douglas North, "Institutions and Their Consequences for Economic Performance," from The Limits of Rationality, Cook and Levi (eds), 383-401, 1990.
May 8th
28) Mark Granovetter, "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, #3, Pp: 481-510, November 1985
May 13
29) Amartya Sen, "The Standard of Living: Lecture1 , Concepts and Critiques," "Chapter 2: Lives and Capabilities," from The Standard of Living, Cambridge University Press, 1985, Pp: 1-38
May 15th
30) James S. Coleman, "Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital," American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 94 (Supplement), 1988, Pp: S95-S120, and Wrap Up.
If you have any questions about the course send me email.
vrao@williams.edu