AMES 27A00 - Business and Society – Boundaries, Frictions, and Contemporary Trends

The objective of this course is to create the space for an exploration of “economic organization” and “business” as being “total social facts” to use here Marcel Mauss’ notion. According to Marcel Mauss a “total social fact” is an activity that has multifarious and multi-dimensional implications – economic, social, political but also legal, cultural and ethical (Mauss 1966). With that in mind, we will be focusing on the fluid and elusive frontiers between what we traditionally see as belonging to the “economic” and/or “business” sphere and all other dimensions of social life. Those frontiers are elusive in the sense that even when, in a particular context, clear boundaries appear to be set, in reality the reciprocal embeddedness of business and society is always more real and more complex than it might appear at first sight (Polanyi 1944). Those frontiers are fluid because they evolve through time and space; they are contextual and reflect dynamic constellations of power, interests, and ideas.

In order to approach business and economic organization in this way, this course adopts a decidedly transdisciplinary perspective – borrowing concepts and building upon debates and contributions from sociology, economics, political science, history, law and anthropology.

None

One mid-term exam (2 hours)

One final exam (3 hours)