Economy in Society: Economic Sociology Revisited
Author: Jacek Tittenbrun
Date Of Publication: Aug 2011
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-3145-1
Isbn: 1-4438-3145-X
The book offers an in-depth analysis of sociology, e.g. such classics as Weber, Parsons and Homans and its adjacent social sciences with special reference to economics, including public choice theory, property rights theory, the Austrian school and others. This discussion submits many fresh observations; giving the theories under consideration their due, it at the same time exposes their flaws. In addition, the book contains a constructive programme of the research field in question termed socio-economic structuralism which involves many theoretical innovations, notions of ownership and class included. This positive theory draws on, albeit is far from mimicking, achievements of the thinkers considered in the remaining parts of the book. From the reader’s viewpoint, it is interesting to note that the book is written in plain, non-technical language. To put it in a nutshell, „Economy in Society” is a must for everyone interested in economic matters as well as both pastt and contemporary social sciences. This refers equally to the peer scholar and the layman. And the latter is virtually everybody, since, as the author sets out to demonstrate, the economy is omnipresent in social and individual life. In any case, both should find the book thought-provoking. Thanks to its merits the book may certainly serve as a textbook.

Jacek Tittenbrun is Professor of Sociology at the Graduate School of Humanities and Journalism , University of Poznan. Among his very numerous publications are:

1. The Collapse of ‘Real Socialism’ in Poland, London-New York, 1993; Public vs. Private Ownership. In Search of the Rationale of Privatisation, London-New York, 1996

“Jacek Tittenbrun is a sociologist with a keen interest in economic processes and a courage to go against the grain of the prevailing philosophy of science and ideology of public discourse. His methodological roots can be found in Max Weber. In his book a reader gets a crash course in Max Weber, Parsons, Smelser, Homans and has to decide between sugar daddy and nanny state or between the invisible hand and the public interest. My personal prize goes to the Gary Becker and shareholder/stakeholder chapters, though more fashion-conscious readers will probably focus on property rights and a critical assessment of a theory of open access property.

The author does not hesitate to criticize his masters, past economic sociologists, even if they are as influential as Bourdieu or Becker or as monumental as Weber or Marx. His critique, however, is not meant to mask his piggy-backing on them. He wants to interest a non-specialist reader (students or general educated public). In my library, Jacek Tittenbrun’s book will stand next to Sheldon Wolin’s, Theda Skocpol’s and Luc Boltanski’s. I wouldn’t be surprised if it became an academic best-seller in business schools, where it would offer a welcome nourishment after a dull diet of the mainstream US handbooks on market economy and business enterprise.”

—Prof. dr S.J. Magala, Erasmus University of Rotterdam

“Jacek Tittenbrun’s painstaking work truly astounded me. I have nothing but deep admiration for this book. Since many years I have not come across at a work of equally encyploadic intent and fully fulfilled at that. In our runaway world it would be difficult to find someone who, like Jacek Tittenbrun, would endeavour to thoroughly examine the entire, accumulated for many decades and by an extensive discipline, knowledge. Indeed, Tittenbrun has created a compendium of all what sociologists have managed to say on the economy and a manual for everyone who would wish to deal with economic sociology and develop further models and approaches worked out by it. Thousands of scholars would be grateful to Jacek Tittenbrun for his labours. My praise is redundant since the book stands on its own owing to its merits: an enormous size of knowledge accumulated in it. Insight of its considerations and meticulousness of its delivery.”

—Zbigniew Bauman, University of Leeds

"Jacek Tittenbrun’s painstaking work truly astounded me. I have nothing but deep admiration for this book. Since many years I have not come across at a work of equally encyploadic intent and fully fulfilled at that. In our runaway world it would be difficult to find someone who, like Jacek Tittenbrun, would endeavour to thoroughly examine the entire, accumulated for many decades and by an extensive discipline, knowledge. Indeed, Tittenbrun has created a compendium of all what sociologists have managed to say on the economy and a manual for everyone who would wish to deal with economic sociology and develop further models and approaches worked out by it. Thousands of scholars would be grateful to Jacek Tittenbrun for his labours. My praise is redundant since the book stands on its own owing to its merits: an enormous size of knowledge accumulated in it. Insight of its considerations and meticulousness of its delivery."

— Zbigniew Bauman, University of Leeds

Price Uk Gbp: 54.99
Price Us Usd: 82.99