The invisible science of the invisible hand: the public presence of economic sociology in the USA

In the USA, the public visibility of economic sociology (ES) has been abysmal, especially in contrast to economics. We start with two case studies where economists borrowed ideas from sociologists, executed them at not particularly high levels and still received great publicity. Once we established that economics gets better press even with less original and overall weaker scholarship, we bracket issues of content and proceed to observe other, institutional mechanisms that privilege economists. As economic sociologists receive less notice because they are sociologists and not economists, we analyse the wider discipline of sociology. We find that sociology is more fragmented both as a discipline and as a profession, it has lost many of its outside constituencies by the 1980s, has not developed a mediating layer of journalists, works on a longer time-scale, and has had mixed success in education. We conclude with recommendations how ES can increase its profile in the USA.