Connected lives and embeddedness: Reading Zelizer with Granovetter – A review and critique

• Main Authors: CAPUTO-LEVINE, Deirdre, LIM, Alwyn, WILLS, Celine.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2007
• Subjects: Economics; Political Economy; Work, Economy and Organizations
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2479; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3736/viewcontent/j1573_7861200700042_3x.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Our concern is to read Viviana Zelizer’s Purchase of Intimacy inrelation to Mark Granovetter’s embeddedness framework. We compare Zelizer’s connected-lives approach to the embeddedness literature in orderto tease out the similarities, differences, and improvements in the wayseconomic sociologists examine the intertwining of economic and socialbehavior. We argue that although Zelizer and Granovetter both focus onthis intermeshing of socioeconomic action, their perspectives reflect theirdiffering starting points: economic transactions or intimate relationships.We believe Zelizer’s connected-lives approach gives fresh insight to thenew economic sociology but we have some reservations regarding hertreatment of reciprocity and power in intimate relationships.