The Intersection Between Economics and Sociology: An Interview with Professor Mark Granovetter

Abstract

Professor Mark Granovetter earned his A.B. in Modern History at Princeton College in 1965, and went on to earn his Ph.D. in sociology at Harvard University in 1970. He has taught sociology at several institutions, including State University of New York at Stony Brook and Northwestern University, before arriving at Stanford University as a professor of sociology in 1995. He has been the Joan Butler Ford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences since 1997, and currently serves as an affiliated professor for the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program on Environment and Resources and for the Woods Institute for the Environment. Professor Granovetter is the current Department of Sociology chair at Stanford.

Mark Granovetter's work primarily focuses on the impact of social networks on macro-economies. One notable example of his work is his ground-breaking work The Strength of Weak Ties, cited over 30,000 times (according to Google Scholar), which specifically examines the impacts that weak ties between tightly knit social groups have on economies. Another notable work is Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness, cited over 25,000 times (again according to Google Scholar) which examines the influence that social relations have on economic actions. Professor Granovetter is currently working on a two-volume book, titled Society and Economy.