COMPARISON OF SOCIOLOGY WITH ECONOMICS [SHORT NOTES\KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER]

SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS

• Economics is the study of production in Society while Sociology studies all the aspects of society.
• Sociology is the study of society, human social behaviour, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and culture that surrounds everyday life. 
• An economic activity is also a social activity and production involves social relations as well.
• Methods of money earning are guided by social norms and values. Theft and robbery can never be legitimate means of earning money. Consumption behaviour is also affected by social and cultural values.

Views of thinkers

• Pierre Bourdieu rightly said that a true economist takes into a consideration even the costs of externalities like suicide and pollution.
• According to Marxists, the super structure consists of various social institutions that can never be complete unless seen in the context of economic substructure.
• Durkheim rejected classical economic theory of division of labour and offered a sociological explanation.  He explained that at macro level, economic activity happens in an autonomous manner guided by the needs of the society.

Differences

• Economics is narrow and specific.  Sociology has wider scope.
• Economics lay emphasis on relationship between pure economic variables like demand and supply. Sociology studies the production enterprise as a social organisation.
• Economists seeks to understand economic activity in a broader framework of ownership of and relations to means of production. Sociology criticises economy theory as reductionist in nature.
• Economist theorists give laws which can predict the economic phenomenon. Sociology does not offer technical solutions.
• There is scope for theory building (Law of demand and supply are universal). Sociological laws are universal. 

Synergy between Sociology and Economics

• Studies of Stratchey, Galbraith, Gunnar Myrdal and Raymond Aron.
• Economic Sociology deals with social aspects of economic life.
• Gender budgeting and feminist economics.
• Economists increasingly use sociological researches.