Viviana A. Zelizer

Collection of Zelizer’s writings on economic sociology, with introductory essays. Zelizer’s work on how life insurance came to be seen as acceptable and even loving, instead of impermissibly mingling sacred life with profane money, was the beginning of her career analyzing the many ways in which money can interact with love and other relationships. She criticizes “separate spheres/hostile worlds” accounts of money and care that claim that the intrusion of one into the other’s area is inherently corrupting. But she also criticizes “nothing-but” accounts that attempt to reduce everything to economics, or to politics, or to culture. Instead, there are multiple and complex negotiations about just how money can acceptably be linked to caregiving: a sex worker is different from a fiance; “payers and recipients attach great importance to both the form and the meaning of the payment and even grow indignant if confusion among types of payment arises.” I find Zelizer’s work very important for theorizing fandom and how fandom is changing as we continue to negotiate the commercial/noncommercial interface. Kindle Worlds is a different kind of commercialization than a convention. Her discussion of “commercial circuits” is also helpful—for one thing it helps explain why Kindle Worlds is so different, since it replaces community with heirarchy. She defines commercial circuits as arrangements that persist over time and have boundaries with some control over transactions crossing those boundaries; a distinctive set of transfers of goods/services; transfers using distinctive media (by which she means some form of currency, though we actually use media, such as fandom gift exchanges, Big Bangs, kudos, etc.); and ties among participants that have shared meaning.… (meer)

Zelizer circuitously found her way into the budding field of economic sociology through the study of small-scale economies and interpersonal relationships in social history. As she researched “how interpersonal negotiations actually transform both available culture and personal relations, and how negotiated interpersonal relations shape the accomplishment of concrete economic activity” (p. 3), she increasingly studied how contemporary economic processes fit within their social contexts. As her work progressed, she gradually came into contact with scholars outside of social history and for over 30 years helped shape the field of economic sociology.

This book contains 20 essays clustered by the major topics of the author’s study: valuation of human lives, social meaning of money, intimate economies, the economy of care, circuits of commerce, and critiques and syntheses of economic sociology. The book is arranged so that each essay may stand alone creating both a positive and a negative reading experience. Positively, the ability for a scholar or researcher to use a singular essay while maintaining intellectual continuity is helpful. However, reading the book from cover to cover creates a great deal of repetition. She often critiques the separate spheres/hostile worlds and nothing-but theories and provides her own theory of good matches repeatedly.

In short, economic theory historically saw interpersonal relationships and the economy as two separate spheres. These spheres must be kept apart or risk corruption on both counts, creating hostile worlds – interpersonal relationships corrupt economic activity and money corrupts interpersonal relationships. Another theory involves nothing-but analyses which hold that interpersonal relationships are just a special kind of market exchange. Regardless, separate spheres and the ensuing hostile worlds approach and the nothing-but approach fall short in Zelizer’s opinion.

She sees economic activity as intertwined with and often fundamental aspect of interpersonal relationships. There is no need to attempt to divest economic considerations from relationships; rather, social groups create their own meanings for money and economic exchange that do not necessarily follow the same rules of macroeconomics yet are crucial forces on the broader market. Her research focuses on these microeconomic rules between individuals and small groups.

It had been a while, so it was fun albeit tedious to read a truly academic work. I found Zelizer’s research informative and revelatory. As sociological research often creates, I now have a new perspective on an ingrained aspect of daily life.… (meer)