Socio-Economic Review Advance Access published online on December 4, 2007
Socio-Economic Review, doi:10.1093/ser/mwm021
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Amitai Etzioni—Twenty years of ‘The Moral Dimension: Toward a New Economics’
JEL classification: A12 relation of economics to other disciplines, A13 relation of economics to social values, A14 sociology of economics
This year, 2008, is the twentieth anniversary of the first appearance of Amitai Etzioni's The Moral Dimension: Towards a New Economics (New York: The Free Press, 1988). The book was a major foundational text behind the inauguration of SASE, the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, from which Socio-Economic Review originated. The editors have asked four scholars working on the relationship between economy and society to assess the book's continuing importance. The Review Symposium concludes with a response from Amitai Etzioni.
Key Words: socio-economics • economics • economic sociology • sociology • political economy • moral norms
The road not taken: ‘The Moral Dimension’ and the new economic sociology
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany
Correspondence: beckert{at}mpifg.de
‘The Moral Dimension’ and its meaning for economic ethics
Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Erfurt, Germany
Correspondence: bettina.hollstein{at}uni-erfurt.de
‘The Moral Dimension’ and ‘The Action Frame of Reference’: lessons for sociologists
Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Correspondence: edward.lehman{at}nyu.edu
Comparison of The Moral Dimension with the ‘action frame of reference’ displays how Parsons' approach to social action and social order have influenced Etzioni's work. Nevertheless Etzioni significantly advances the sociological understanding of both issues. His approach to action provides a more sombre view of the rational capacity of humans but also adds a ‘deontological’ aspect to action's normative component, thus opening the way for observers and participants to transcend moral relativism. Etzioni's approach to order clarifies how a ‘social capsule’ regulates self-interested competition and conflict, introduces the key role of ‘macro-actors’ and highlights the inevitable and complex interplay of normative and coercive factors in fostering order.
‘The Moral Dimension’ twenty years on
Department of Management and Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics, London, UK
Correspondence: d.marsden{at}lse.ac.uk
‘The Moral Dimension’ revisited
Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA
Correspondence: etzioni{at}gwu.edu