Morals and Markets. the Development of Life Insurance in the United States

Uncertainty, the problem of order, and markets: a critique of Beckert, Theory and Society, May 2009

“…That is the road taken by Marx (1978aMarx ( , b, [1867 1990), whose analysis turned classical political economy on its head by arguing that search of profit-an essential aspect of capitalist market economies (Swedberg 2005b)-drives historically unique dynamics under capitalism because of the particular class relations embodied in its institutions of production (Dobb 1973). It is not an accident that the most illustrious studies of markets and capitalism, from Polanyi ([1944] 2001) to Zelizer (1979) among others, follow an approach that focuses on historically specific structural relationships and institutional configurations. The distinctive contribution of sociology to the analysis of markets rests on unpacking the supply-demand-price mechanism and the drive for material wealth as well as profit making in order to unravel how institutions and macro-level structures shape the patterns observed in economic phenomena.…”

“…An alternative, which animates a significant amount of empirical analysis in economic sociology (Zelizer 1979;Fligstein 2001;Bourdieu 2005;Carruthers 2005), is a perspective that focuses on the historically variable rules, symbols, morals, organizations, and institutions of markets. Such an outlook envisions markets as contingent social structures, meaning that "their existence and shape as 'facts' actually depend on a whole web of other social arrangements whose shapes and interrelations are changing" (Mann 1994, p. 47).…”

Who is right about the modern economy: Polanyi, Zelizer, or both?

“…Zelizer is known for a series of studies dealing with the commercialization of life insurance, the monetary value of a child and the social meaning of money (respectively, Zelizer 1979Zelizer , 1985Zelizer , 1994. Her interest in the cultural dimension of the economy and her neglect of the political dimension, so important in Neil Fligstein's work and of the network analysis at the core of Granovetter's work, gives her a specific place within contemporary economic sociology (Convert and Heilbron 2005).…”

Victims’ Normative Repertoire of Financial Compensation: The Tainted hGH Case

“…See in particular: Schuck (1986) on the damaging effects of agent orange during the Vietnam War, Todeschini (1999) on the Hiroshima bomb, Feldman (2000) on the contaminated blood affair in three countries, Petryna (2002) on the Chernobyl disaster, Jobin (2006) on the industrial pollution affairs in Japan, Fassin and Rechtman (2007) and Latté (2008) on the explosion at the AZF factory in France, Henry (2007) on the asbestos affair in France, Langumier (2008) on the floods in the south of France, Barthe (2010) on the nuclear tests carried out by the French army. 2 According to Zelizer (1979), this resistance explains, for example, the very slow beginnings of the lifeinsurance market in the United States during the first half of the 19th century. Potential life-insurance customers were repelled by the idea of receiving money as a result of a relative's death.…”