Social context of economic behaviour

his small volume is concerned with the problem of ana lyzing economic events. It takes as its focus the single decision by a consumer, a worker, a firm, or a community, because it is my convic tion that we often generalize about these decisions in inherently dangerous ways. Such generalizations are common among students of business and economics, who are prone to make the simplifying assumptions required by rigorous economic theory without fully realizing that they have made them. Often it is true of businessmen, who should know better but who abandon their own knowledge of affairs to accept the protocols of economics as a value system. Sometimes it is true of economists themselves who, having discovered a particular nicety of relations within the theoretical structures they have developed, are ready to prescribe cures for the world's ills.

There is nothing particularly novel in the material of this book. It merely uses the conceptual framework of sociology to discuss and to analyze individual economic decisions of various sorts. Many of these analyses come directly from sociological studies not primarily concerned with economic activities. Some come from students of business or labor problems or human relations or international trade who have either used social constructs themselves or who have talked about specific events in such detail that it is not difficult to suggest the social realities that provide the context of decision. Some of the events discussed are the result of personal interviewing and research directed toward the understanding of particular economic decisions. In sum, they may provide a background of information indicating the ways in which we oversimplify economic activities. The analytic constructs may suggest richer and more adequate views of economic behavior or economic goals.