Bridging Economics and Sociology in Housing Research

Abstract

It is quite well-known that economics and sociology as disciplines have a somewhat strained relationship. Both disciplines have (some of) their roots in the 18 century Political Economy (Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson and others) but from very early on the two disciplines started to develop quite different perspectives to social life. The most self-consciously sociologist of the founders of sociology, Émile Durkheim, was rather dismissive of the utilitarian and individualist view of the human actor that he found in the works of the economists of the time. He saw the search for individual gain as one side of the human being whereas solidarity with others was the other side – the one that constituted a functioning society. The difference between economics and sociology has often been summarized by a simple juxtaposition: economics explains behaviour by reference to people’s rational pursuit of their interests whereas sociology explains it by reference to people’s adherence to, or breaking of, the social norms of the community or society. While there is some truth in this formulation, it is nevertheless a quite coarse simplification hiding variety of perspectives within the disciplines. Apart from the difference between the strategy of explanation, the two disciplines have developed quite different methodological orientations: mainstream economics makes and tests formalized mathematical models, whereas sociology uses a variety of, often less formalized, quantitative and qualitative research techniques. There have been several attempts to bridge the gap between these two cultures of inquiry. In sociology, the special field of economic sociology has incorporated insights from economics to sociological analysis of economic phenomena. In economics, behavioural and institutional economics have been influenced by ideas coming from sociology. There have also been some attempts to combine what are considered the best insights from both disciplines into an approach that is strictly neither economics, nor sociology. In this Focus article issue of Housing, Theory and Society, we meet one such attempt tailored to the investigation of a carefully limited range of housing issues – but mutatis mutandis relevant to many others. Martin Lux and Petr Sunega are experienced housing researchers. Their Focus article Pragmatic socioeconomics: A way towards new findings on sources of (housing) market instability has grown out of their 10 years’ experience of doing research on the impact of social norms on home-buying behaviour and the housing market consequences of that behaviour in the Czech Republic. The Focus article is a programmatic one proposing us a new approach for investigation housing choice and its impacts on markets. HTS has invited six comments on the Lux and Sunega’s Focus article from eight distinguished housing scholars representing economics and sociology (or both). The comments by Atkinson and Jacobs, Clapham, Dewilde, Norvik and Aarland, Nygaard HOUSING, THEORY AND SOCIETY 2022, VOL. 39, NO. 2, 127–128 https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2022.2019953