ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that "Sociological Categories of Economic Action" provides a solid theoretical foundation for economic sociology, rivaled only by what can be found in the works of Karl Marx and Karl Polanyi. Max Weber is very careful to argue that the concept of "utility" must not be limited to the satisfaction of needs but also include the case of profit-making by a firm. The concept of appropriation is central to Weber's economic sociology but also presents some conceptual difficulties. The basic idea of this figure is that underlying Weber's definition of economic action is a notion of the whole economic process. One of Weber's most interesting and underutilized concepts in economic sociology is that of householding, which is part of the conceptual pair householding and profit-making. Weber also splits the concept of rationality into two: formal and substantive rationality. What makes up a market, in short, is not only exchange, but also another type of social action: competition.
