Mapping Paradigm Wars: Canadian Political Economy and Its Relationship to Economics and Contemporary Economic Sociology.

This paper attempts to map and explain three different perspectives for understanding the relationship between economy and society: mainstream economics, economic sociology and Canadian political economy. Each paradigm provides a distinctive way of interpreting economic phenomena due to differences in the topics they tend to study, their theoretical propositions, how issues of uncertainty and information are viewed, their relationships to other social sciences, and the existing anomalies in each paradigm. The relatively new paradigm of economic sociology has distinguished itself as an addition to, or in conflict with the rational, axiomatic mainstream neoclassical economic paradigm, offering a variety of studies emphasizing the social construction of markets. Despite its success in the United States and elsewhere since its inception in the early 1980?s, economic sociology remains conspicuously absent from Canadian sociology. It is argued this may be in part to the dominance of a now emaciated ?Canadian political economy? paradigm rooted in historical Canadian economic subordination and dependency to the United States, the 1960?s student movement, and Marxist fervor that characterized much 1970?s social science. Canadian political economy distanced itself from mainstream sociology by focusing on issues of elite rule, class struggle and resistance. Today, the sophisticated and relatively militant neo-Marxist theorizing that characterized early political economy has given way to a ?softer?, less class-based political economy. Theories from economic sociologists are used to interpret these socially constructed ?markets of ideas.? The paper concludes by exploring future possibilities for the study of economy and society in Canada, and in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]