Living in a Material World: Economic Sociology Meets Science and Technology Studies

Although social scientists generally agree that technology plays a major role in the economy, economics and technology have yet to be brought together into a coherent framework that is both analytically interesting and empirically oriented. This book draws on the tools of science and technology studies and economic sociology to reconceptualize the intersection of economy and technology, suggesting materiality—the idea that social existence involves not only actors and social relations but also objects—as the theoretical point of convergence. The contributors take up general concerns (individual agency in a network economy and the materiality of the household in economic history), and specific financial technologies (the stock ticker, the trading room, the telephone). Forms of infrastructure—accounting, global configurations of trading and information technologies, patent law—are examined. Case studies of the effect of the Internet and information technology on consumption (e-commerce), the reputation economy (the rise of online reviews of products), and organizational settings (outsourcing of an IT system) complete this collection of essays. Contributors include Elizabeth Popp Berman, Daniel Beunza, Michel Callon, Karin Knorr Cetina, Shay David, Thomas F. Gieryn, Barbara Grimpe, David Hatherly, David Leung, Christian Licoppe, Donald MacKenzie, Philip Mirowski, Fabian Muniesa, Edward Nik-Khah, Trevor Pinch, Alex Preda, Nicholas J. Rowland, David Stark, and Richard Swedberg.