Recent Developments in Economic Sociology in Italy

The aim of the paper is to interpret some specificities of Italian economic sociology. The starting point is a comparison between the structures of Trigilia’s manual of economic sociology and Swedberg’s. The former is more inclined to present economic sociology as a history of sociological thought applied to the relation between the economic sphere and society at large, more specifically to the social conditions of economic processes and to their social consequences. The latter has a more analytical approach. Italian economic sociology is internationally recognized for its studies on industrial districts. Some reasons for the decline of these studies are given, and the importance of other emerging fields is discussed. Italian economic sociology has traditionally adhered to the idea that theoretical development is always rooted into social transformations and suggested, in some ways, by new kinds of processes taking place. Although the role of theoretical models is important in generating interpretations, which are in turn fed by comparative approaches, theories tend to be event-driven and usually they are fully developed ex post facto.