Should governments be involved in economic affairs? Challenging prevailing wisdom about the benefits of self-regulating markets, Nina Bandelj and Elizabeth Sowers offer a uniquely sociological perspective to emphasize that states can never be divorced from economy. From defining property rights and regulating commodification of labor to setting corporate governance standards and international exchange rules, the state continuously manages the functioning of markets and influences economic outcomes for individuals, firms and nations.

The authors bring together classical interventions and...

Should governments be involved in economic affairs? Challenging prevailing wisdom about the benefits of self-regulating markets, Nina Bandelj and Elizabeth Sowers offer a uniquely sociological perspective to emphasize that states can never be divorced from economy. From defining property rights and regulating commodification of labor to setting corporate governance standards and international exchange rules, the state continuously manages the functioning of markets and influences economic outcomes for individuals, firms and nations.

The authors bring together classical interventions and...

Symbolic resources affect social, cultural, and economic development. The value of being "Made in America" or "Made in Italy," for example, depends not only on the material advantages each place offers but also on the symbolic resources embedded in those places of production. Drawing on case studies that range from the vineyards of South Africa and the textiles of Thailand to the Mundo Maya in Latin America and tourist destinations in Tuscany, this volume examines the various forms that cultural wealth takes, the processes involved in its construction, and the ways it is deployed. Leading...

Symbolic resources affect social, cultural, and economic development. The value of being "Made in America" or "Made in Italy," for example, depends not only on the material advantages each place offers but also on the symbolic resources embedded in those places of production. Drawing on case studies that range from the vineyards of South Africa and the textiles of Thailand to the Mundo Maya in Latin America and tourist destinations in Tuscany, this volume examines the various forms that cultural wealth takes, the processes involved in its construction, and the ways it is deployed. Leading...

Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged examines the twenty-year aftermath of the 1989 assaults on established, state-sponsored socialism in the former Soviet bloc and in China. Editors Nina Bandelj and Dorothy J. Solinger bring together prominent experts on Eastern Europe and China to examine the respective trajectories of political, economic, and social transformations that unfolded in these two areas, while also comparing the changes that ensued within the two regions. The volume features paired comparisons, with one chapter on the countries from the former Soviet bloc and one...