ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents and discusses Max Weber's key concepts in economics and sociology, which to some extent parallel those of Polanyi, but also have their own distinct character and are far more systematic in nature. It describes many sociologists to become interested in economic sociology and to revive the concept of "embeddedness" earlier stressed by Karl Polanyi. The book highlights important differences between the kind of economic sociology that was now emerging and the kind of economic sociology that had existed before, especially in the United States in the 1950s. It proposes that the new version was more sharply critical of neoclassical economics, where the older was respectful; and it was interested in bread-and-butter economic issues, such as the market and price formation.
