Critical analysis of Mark Granovetter’s Economic Sociology: the

Abstract

This text aims to analyse theoretically and methodologically Granovetter’s structural approach in order to evaluate the reaches and limits of the thought of one of the most famous and representative authors of the New Economic Sociology. We come to the conclusion that, in spite of constituting a genuinely sociological analysis of the economic phenomena, in particular due to the (re)elaboration of fundamental concepts as network, embeddedness or economic group, Granovetter’s approach presents a series of limitations, which have to do, among others, with a reflection yet incipient concerning the motivations of the economic actor, a certain conceptual indefinition and a neglect of the wider social context in which networks are embedded. Keywords: New Economic Sociology; Granovetter, network, market, economic action, economic institution.