Notes de cours
Class notes Economic Sociology (HBA15A)
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- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven)
Includes the class notes and the summary of the slides.
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Economic SociologyCH1 Sociology’s Status
1. Science and Pseudo-science
a. Science is about understanding and controlling material and biological reality.
b. Main difference between pseudo-science and science is in the methodology the results
are gained. (Ex. Astrology, homeopathy, and etc.).
c. Dead ends: Another term for pseudo-science
2. Internal consistency: Logical errors, contradictions, conceptual clarity, openness to falsification
a. Language and structure of arguments (Ex. Math is conductive to consistency)
3. Evidence: All areas of study, need facts to check with reality. Good theory is necessary condition,
but facts are needed.
4. Scientific cycle:
a. Induction: Observations leading to inference
b. Deduction: theory to observations
5. Reduction of error: It is okay to be wrong. If overtime
the “wrong” is corrected with new knowledge. Need to
reduce the amount of wrong. An indicator of pseudo-
science, is saying something is true because it is
new/old idea.
6. Social Organization: individuals in (ethical, attitudinal)
dimension: be receptive to refutation, even seek it acquired socially.
a. In society, it assumes a system of competition and free exchange of ideas, with some
parallels to market exchange. If there is a social limitation (dictatorship), there won’t be
good scientists. (Ex. In the Stalin era during the Soviet Union, a Russian agriculturalist
favored by Stalin said that plants could inherit acquired characteristics, which was not
true. The biologist and agriculturists denying that fact was imprisoned and expulsed.)
7. Can sociology be scientific?
a. Sociology can be scientific but can easily be considered as pseudo-science.
i. Fundamentally different from science as:
1. Sociology can’t be built on experiments
2. Sociology deals with humans and their interactions
b. The experimental design: OXO model
i. Oldest and the most valid and reliable research model (considered to be the
purest)
1. To have an OXO model
a. Randomized distribution in 2 groups (experimental vs control)
b. Observation measured before and after stimulus
c. Solomon design/bias is when the experimenters’ opinions change due to prior
information given
8. Alternative 1: Large scale surveys
, a. Based on standardized interviews and many variables can be collected.
b. Downside: no certainty in the causal relationship but the correlation can be found
9. Quasi-experiments
a. Departs in at least one respect from experimental ideal type
i. Often: experiments in the real world, hence, lacks control
b. Comparison with a survey
i. No intervention by the researchers
ii. Mimics experimental design
10. Human action
a. The object of sociology is: “conscious sentient beings”
b. Human actions are different from the logic of nature (Ex. Water boiling and people
voluntarily going into a sauna)
11. Sociology is the science of social phenomena made up of social actions
a. Criteria 1: Intentionality
b. Criteria 2: Coordination
c. Same behavior belongs to different partial sets (ex. Breathing, praying) 
12. Types of social actions
a. Instrumental rational: evaluating its consequences and consideration of the various
means to achieve it.
b. Value rational: sociologists believe that people’s actions are derived from their personal
wants & preferences. They do not take in to account the consequences of costs.
i. Affectual (emotional): People act on immediate emotion
ii. Traditional (habitual): People tend to automate their actions
13. Conclusions
a. ‘Aimless’ or ‘meaningless’ action is a contradiction in terms
b. Non-rational action can also be meaningful
c. There is more than one type of rationality
,CH2 Social Construction
1. Introduction
a. Two approaches of a scientific discipline (ex. Economics)
i. Object: ‘the economy’
ii. Basic assumption: maximizing behavior
b. In sociology, this is also the case:
i. Object: social action and social structures
ii. Basic assumption: reality is socially constructed
2. Biology is the starting point (the role played by instinct)
a. In humans, this role is very minimal compared to other animals. (Ex. Ants are coded to
follow their leaders as well as salmons go back to where they were born)
b. Differences between human societies in structure and preferences of their members
(Ex. Some countries have a lot of babies while some don’t, some people suicide yet
some don’t)
c. “World openness”: same genetic code, yet we are all different
d. Problem: Freedom from instinctual control can create infinite desire
i. Solution: regulation in culture defining what to desire and providing rules how
to do this
ii. Culture is above us, coordinating our actions and aspirations, creating an order,
and in us, creating the perception that the order around us is natural. (This part
of us is called a role)
3. Application: “the sick role”
a. In general people are expected to work (exceptions: unemployed, sick, under certain
conditions)
b. The sick role has 4 characteristics
i. “Normal” expectations are suspended (if legitimized by medical doctor)
ii. Innocence
iii. Duty to see sickness as undesired
iv. Duty to seek competent (professional) help
4. The Thomas Theorem
a. Quintessential: social constructions are intersubjective, both personal and ‘objective’
b. Our behaviors are based on our interpretations of reality, not reality itself (Ex from the
book. If a man believes that his house is on fire, he will evacuate the house. However,
when the house does not burn down, it will prove that his beliefs were wrong)
c. Social construction is dependent on existence in our heads not ‘out there; (with others)
d. Regularities in social life is made by a group of people
5. Case 1: Tenskwatawa, charismatic religious Indian leader
a. During a war with the invaders from Europe, the Indian leader had a dream that his men
will be invincible from bullets. He told his men and they performed a ritual, however,
during a battle many of his men dies.
Case 2: HIV/Aids
, b. During the 16th century, Europeans who had AIDS thought that having intercourse with a
virgin will cure the illness. However, it was later found out to be wrong
6. A holy trinity
a. Externalization: how a person projects his meaning of reality
to society
b. Internalization: how a person accepts the social norms and
values into his consciousness
c. Objectivation: the process by which a person externalizes
himself through language
7. Why is there a violation of norms?
a. Society can be depicted because of culturally defined goals and institutionalized means that is
adapted to individuals
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