Economic Sociology of Capitalism or Digital Music Wars

Economic Sociology of Capitalism

Author: Victor Ne

This book represents a major step forward in the use of economic sociology to illuminate the nature and workings of capitalism amid the far-reaching changes of the contemporary era of global capitalism. For the past twenty years economic sociologists have focused on mesa-level phenomena of networks, but they have done relatively little to analyze capitalism as an overall system or to show how such phenomena emerge from and shape the dynamics of capitalism. The Economic Sociology of Capitalism seeks to change this, by presenting both big-picture analyses of capitalism and more focused pieces on institutions crucial to capitalism.

The book, which includes sixteen chapters by leading scholars in economic sociology, is organized around three broad themes. The first section addresses core issues and problems in the new study of capitalism; the second considers a variety of topics concerning America, the leading capitalist economy of the world; and the third focuses attention on the question of convergence stemming from the global transformation of capitalism and the challenge of explaining institutional change.

The contributions, which follow a foreword by economic historian Avner Greif and the editor's introduction, are by Mitchel Abolafia, James Baron and Michael Hannan, Mary C. Brinton, John Campbell, Gerald Davis and Christopher Marquis, Paul DiMaggio and Joseph Cohen, Peter Evans, Neil Fligstein, John Freeman, Francis Fukuyama, Ko Kuwabara, Victor Nee, Douglass C. North, AnnaLee Saxenian, Richard Swedberg, and Viviana Zelizer.

Table of Contents:

	Foreword : institutions, markets, and games
	Introduction
	The economic sociology of capitalism : an introduction and agenda	3
	Capitalism and economic growth	41
	Organizational dynamics of institutional change : politicized capitalism in China	53
	Still disenchanted? : the modernity of postindustrial capitalism	75
	The challenges of the "institutional turn" : new interdisciplinary opportunities in development theory	90
	States, markets, and economic growth	119
	Venture capital and modern capitalism	144
	The economic sociology of organizational entrepreneurship : lessons from the Stanford project on emerging companies	168
	Making sense of recession : toward an interpretive theory of economic action	204
	Information inequality and network externalities : a comparative study of the diffusion of television and the Internet	227
	Affective attachment in electronic markets : a sociological study of eBay	268
	Circuits within capitalism	289
	Brain circulation and capitalist dynamics : Chinese chipmaking and the SiliconValley-Hsinchu-Shanghai triangle	325
	The globalization of stock markets and convergence in corporate governance	352
	Fiscal sociology in an age of globalization : comparing tax regimes in advanced capitalist countries	391
	Trouble in paradise : institutions in the Japanese economy and the youth labor market	419

Go to: Protectionism or Comparative Economics in a Transforming World Economy

Digital Music Wars: Ownership and Control of the Celestial Jukebox

Author: Patrick Burkart

With the rising popularity of online music, the nature of the music industry is rapidly changing. Rather than buying albums, tapes, or CDs, music shoppers can purchase just one song at a time. It's akin to putting a coin into a diner jukebox except the jukebox is out in cyberspace. But has increasing copyright protection gone too far in keeping the music from the masses? The authors show how the online music industry will establish the model for digital distribution, cultural access, and consumer privacy. Digital Music Wars explores the far-reaching implications of downloading music in an in-depth and insightful way.