Socioeconomic Complexity and the Sociological Tradition: New Wine in Old Bottles

Complexity is a purposeful integrating framework for interdisciplinary dialogue, namely between sociologists and economists. After presenting some properties of complex (social) systems, we consider the crucial role of the economic complexity research agenda in challenging the mainstream economic paradigm. This endeavor, we suggest, can greatly benefit from a neglected but relevant aspect, the concern regarding social complexity implicit in the sociological tradition, particularly the emphasis given by Durkheim to the idea of interdependence, a keystone of complexity studies nowadays. As we underline, instead of assuming interdependence/complexity and autonomy/simplicity in a tradeoff relationship, the French sociologist takes interdependence and autonomy as fundamentally complementary and positively correlated characteristics of modern societies. This fact suggests the convenience to conceptualize complexity as a broad socioeconomic, and not just a strict economic, phenomenon. Such a purpose is certainly more damaged than benefited by the existence of the economics/sociology academic divide.Socioeconomic complexity; interdependence; autonomy; sociological tradition; Durkheim

Beliefs, values and attitudes of Portuguese population and their relationship with human and social capital

Studying economic values and beliefs and their relationship with attitudes and behavior has been common in most social sciences throughout the world, at least since the 1960s. However, Portugal remained very much outside this research program and, contrary to the majority of European countries or the United States, it still lacks a coherent an integrative research on economic values, beliefs and behaviors. On the other hand, the existing data (European and World Value Surveys, Eurobarometer or the Portuguese Statistics Institute) only offers a partial view of the individual’s relationship with the economic system, namely consumer confidence or general ideas of trust. The studies already developed on this subject are normally restricted to the association of economic values and beliefs with socio-demographic characteristics, failing to include both the analysis of behaviors and the impact all these variables may have on economic performance indicators. The current study is intended as a first step towards a deeper comprehension of these phenomena.

Socioeconomic complexity and the sociological tradition : new wine in old bottles

Complexity is a purposeful integrating framework for interdisciplinary dialogue, namely between sociologists and economists. After presenting some properties of complex (social) systems, we consider the crucial role of the economic complexity research agenda in challenging the mainstream economic paradigm. This endeavor, we suggest, can greatly benefit from a neglected but relevant aspect, the concern regarding social complexity implicit in the sociological tradition, particularly the emphasis given by Durkheim to the idea of interdependence, a keystone of complexity studies nowadays. As we underline, instead of assuming interdependence/complexity and autonomy/simplicity in a tradeoff relationship, the French sociologist takes interdependence and autonomy as fundamentally complementary and positively correlated characteristics of modern societies. This fact suggests the convenience to conceptualize complexity as a broad socioeconomic, and not just a strict economic, phenomenon. Such a purpose is certainly more damaged than benefited by the existence of the economics/sociology academic divide

Political Remarks on the Notion of Gated Communities as Club Goods

Paper presented at the 5th International Conference of the Research Network Private Urban Governance & Gated Communities, Redefinition of Public Space Within the Privatization of CitiesIt is debated how much conceptualizations of the phenomenon of gated communities under the lenses of public choice theory may configure a misleading approach. The typifying of goods by mainstream economics is briefly presented and discussed, attention being directed to how much these must (and should) be institutionally rooted discussions. Shortcomings of economics-inspired discourse in capturing the logics of political life are underlined. The eruption of gated communities is referred to obvious deficiencies in public provision of goods that are often characteristic of situations of blockages in development processes and high inequalities in the distribution of both wealth and political and symbolic resources. These traits have clear implications in the shifting definition of limits between private and public spheres across societies. The cumulative circular causations of these phenomena are highlighted, as well as their largely "performative" nature

Values beliefs and economic behaviors: a regional approach

The purpose of this paper is to identify relationships between value orientations, beliefs and economic behaviors of agents, on one side, and differences between levels of economic development, on the other. Empirical analysis is based on a sample of Portuguese municipalities and correspondent parishes, organized in groups set by an urban-versus-rural typology and according to levels of development as measured by GDP per capita. Different value orientations, beliefs and behaviors were identified. Four clusters were thereby considered, generically correspondent to “stabilization”, “economic nationalism”, “entrepreneurship” and “consumerism”. These clusters are related to the spatial dimensions considered

Beliefs, values and attitudes of Portuguese population and their relationship with human and social capital

The main purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the economic values, beliefs and attitudes of the Portuguese population and how they are associated with behaviors linked to economic performance. It is based on a research oriented to three main goals: 1 - the description and explanation of the formation of economic values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, based on a questionnaire submitted to a national sample, stratified by regional areas; 2 - the identification of the existent linkages between these micro-sociological variables and regional and national economic performance (e.g. GDP, unemployment rates, inflation, investment, debt and wages); 3 - the exploration of the role of human and social capital as moderators between micro-sociological variables and a support for different types of economic values. In this paper we explore the third goal, offering a tentative typology of economic values’ support.peer-reviewe

Economics education : literacy or mind framing? : Evidence from a survey on the social building of trust in Portugal

This paper deals on the issue of whether or not studying economics has a relevant effect on molding the values and attitudes characteristic of the trust-building processes prevailing in a democratic society. Mainstream economics teaching, based on the self-interest model of rational, maximizing, individualistic representative agents, may well cause indoctrinating effects, creating or reinforcing both political conservatism and selfishness values and behaviors among economics students. This result is confirmed by most studies in relevant literature, but it may be otherwise explained by a so-called self-selection effect, suggesting that “economists are born, not made”. In this paper a contribution to this literature is made with more empirical evidence, namely the results of a survey entitled “Social Building of Trust in Portugal”, referring to a considerable diversity of samples (economics students, other students, ordinary citizens of two counties, urban and rural) and being applied in three different years: 2006, 2009 and 2012.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Writing sociology at the beginning of the twenty-first century

Paul Veyne has suggested in 1971 that Sociology lacked a study object. Three quarters of a century after Durkheim’s Rules, it had yet to discover social types and orders of preponderant facts. At any rate, Veyne claimed, since Sociology or at least sociologists exist, we must conclude that, under that label, they do something else. Briefly, besides studying the logical conditions of Sociology, we should also sociologically consider it, as well as other neighbour and potentially rival disciplines. In this paper it is argued that, contrary to other scientific fields, Sociology lives in an environment of permanently renewed crisis. Different authors and traditions have indeed asserted exactly that, while based on entirely diverse assumptions. In order to justify the characteristic traits of today’s crisis, we try to list some of the little demons that have contributed to the current situation: 1) The hagiographic syndrome; 2) The isomorphism defence; 3) The acceptance urge

Social policies, political attitudes and ageing: Results from a survey on Greater Lisbon / Políticas sociais, atitudes políticas e envelhecimento: Resultados de uma pesquisa na Grande Lisboa

This paper considers an important aspect for the assessment of public policies in Portugal, namely the opinions of laypersons or population in general, and particularly the ones regarding social policies. Such opinions, even though different from the ones of experts, must be dully taken into consideration in any assessment of the effectiveness of public policies. The study is based on a survey performed in December 2016, regarding a sample of 600 individuals living in the Greater Lisbon, stratified by gender, education and age. Its main focus is the analysis of shifting attitudes according to age.  The questions refer namely to: identification with political parties; vote in recent elections; reasons for vote and/or abstention; interest for politics; features perceived in Portuguese political agents; trust in political agents; satisfaction with the functioning of democracy in Portugal; citizens’ perceived influence in political events; relevant aspects in partisan choice; self-perception in terms of left-right dimension; preference for economic market regulation, state regulation and/or regulation by the ‘third sector’; evaluation of social policies; biases within these perceptions and preferences associated with gender, levels of income, and age