İktisat Sosyolojisinin Sınırlarını Çizmek: Eleştirel Bir Değerlendirme

Yeni iktisat sosyolojisi (YİS) alt alanının özünü, sosyologların yerleşik iktisada yönelttiği birbiriyle ilişkili iki farklı temel eleştirinin oluşturduğu iddia edilebilir: i) rasyonel tercih kuramı “toplumsallaşmasını tamamlayamamış” (under-socialized) birey kavramına yol açmaktadır; ii) piyasa ilişkilerini doğru anlayabilmek için “toplumsal iç içe geçmişlik” (embeddedness) kavramını çözümlemenin merkezine koymak gerekir. Bu yazıda her iki eleştirinin de yetersiz olduğu iddia edilecektir. İlkin, bireyin bu şekilde kavramsallaştırılmasına yönelik eleştiriler, YİS araştırmacıları bunları öne sürmeden çok daha önce, iktisat disiplininin kendi içinde zaten tartışılmış ve geleneksel iktisat tarafından kuralın istisnaları olarak kabul edilmişti. İkincisi, YİS’in “toplumsal iç içe geçmişlik” kavramını öne sürerek neoklasik iktisadı alaşağı edebileceği iddiaları yersizdir; nitekim bu konuda da YİS ile geleneksel iktisadi anlayışı benimsemekle birlikte anaakım iktisada eleştirel yaklaşan iktisatçılar arasında, her iki düşünce geleneği de iktidar ilişkilerini kişilerarası ve durumsal boyutlarıyla ele alıp yapısal boyutunu göz ardı ettiği için, ciddi bir fark söz konusu değildir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

Rasyonel Tercih, Toplumsal iç içe geçmişlik, İşlem maliyeti yaklaşımı, Güven, Toplumsal Ağ Biçimlerine Dayalı Örgütlenme

Drawing The Boundaries Of Economic Sociology: A Critical Assessment

It can be argued that the core of the subfield of new economic sociology (NES) is consisted of two inter-related yet distinct foundational criticisms by the sociologists to mainstream economics: i) that its commitment to rational choice leads to an “under-socialized” concept of the agent; and ii) that it can correct the mainstream understanding of market affairs, if the concept of “embeddedness” is included in the analysis. In this paper, I will argue that these dual criticisms are insufficient, due to; first, even in the economics discipline itself, such a reconceptualization of the agent had already been posed long before the NES scholars even formulated their criticisms, and thus such criticisms had already been absorbed by the conventional economic thinking as exceptions to the rule; and second, the introduction of the concept of “embeddedness” by the NES cannot overturn neoclassical economics, since the NES scholars hardly differ from the heterodox-minded economists as both focus merely on the interpersonal and situational (while largely dismissing the structural) dimensions of power relations.

Keywords:

Rational Choice, Embeddedness, Transaction Cost Approach, Trust, Network Forms of Organization,

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