Fields of Research
Aiming to combine and develop the approaches of economic sociology, comparative and international political economy, and organization studies, the School’s research investigates the complex linkages between economic and social action.
Interdisciplinary cooperation enables the program to combine insights from economic sociology, comparative and international political economy, and organization studies. Work at the School pursues an empirical-analytical approach rather than an efficiency-theoretical, prescriptive one. It explores how institutions and organizations evolve in the real economy, rather than determining how they should evolve, or how they would evolve in ideal conditions.
Two types of social formations receiving particular attention in the research program are institutions and markets. Both on their own and in their interaction, institutions are normative constructs that generate social order by constraining specific actions while supporting others.
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Another prominent subject at the School is the institutional embeddedness of economic organizations, their relationship to political regulation, and their role in the constitution and reproduction of markets.
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Research at the School in this field investigates the economic effects of the institutional structure of political systems. For example, different election systems, power sharing between the legislative and the executive, the degree of centralization of political decision making, and multi-level governance (...).
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The final major topic at the School is the analysis of the embedding of markets in larger institutional complexes. In
Pierre Bourdieu's terminology these configurations of institutions are called fields of (cultural) production.
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