2008. Vol. 9. No. 3

This is a manifest written by Alain Caille on the basis of the lecture series delivered in 2005 in Indonesia by the leading representatives of the non-orthodox French schools of economic thoughts.  Initially the text was written in English. Later on in 2007 they published a French version in La Revue du MAUSS. Soon the Spanish translation appeared. Other famous non-orthodox economists and economic sociologists joined this group of authors (RobertBoyer, EricBrousseau,Alain Caillé, Oliver Favereau), who signed the document.

Economists attack! The movement of economic imperialism comprises the systematic attempts of economic theory expansion into the nearby fields of social science. And this expansion is an indirect evidence for the internal crisis of economic theory [Guriev 2008]. Exit to external borders and revision of own assumptions go together in much sense supporting each other. But we believe that economists will manage to solve these problems themselves. We are interested in a different question: how should sociologists treat this situation. Remain calm and do nothing or to fight with “usurpers”? 

The paper discusses the results of the sociological analysis of the price setting on the market of contemporary art. Basing on the in-depth interviews with art dealers in New-York and Amsterdam I focus on the two norms of pricing: the first one keeps the dealers from the price declining; the second impels them to set prices in accordance with the size (of the picture).  Relying on these norms I state that price setting is not only economic but also denominative act: despite impersonal business price connotations the actors manage to express a row of cognitive and cultural meanings. Economic theory of signals recognizes that prices have special meanings but reduces their role to the opportunities for getting profit. In humanitarian sciences on the contrary the price meanings have destroying effect. I follow sociological approach according to which the prices, their differences and changes express variety of meanings depending on artist’s reputation, social status of the dealers and the qualities of the art products that are for sale.  

The paper considers the changing practices of knowledge and technology transfer in Russian economy. One of key goals of the economic reforms was to accelerate the scientific and technological progress in account for the improvement of the interrelation between science and production. For this purpose the state suggested new formal institutions that better correspond to the market requirements. Institute of patents and license are among them. However the use of patent system came to be ineffective and the knowledge and technology transfer more often relies on informal relations raising as the result of scientists migration and set up of spin-off companies. Structural formations that provide the transfer of knowledge and technology has network character what leads to formation of more formalized inter-organizational relations. The share of the state companies in the field of research and development is still rather high but the border between private and social ownership in people beliefs is watering down. The process could be called network privatization of science. The research is base on the results of case-studies in the separate research organizations.

The paper deals with the different characteristics of organization and internal organizational processes that influence the income inequality formation. On the basis of the existing studies we found out that a number of organization’s characteristics (its size, growth, demographic characteristics, used technologies, trade unions and external environment) have direct impact on career mechanism and wage setting. Applying thesis by Granovetter about social embededness of economic action to the assessments and actions for career mobility within the firm give us the opportunity to understand better that logic of hierarchical functions, selection mechanisms and wage setting.