Format: on Shaninka campus and online
Language: Russian, English
Moderators: Ekaterina Noikina (Shaninka student), Evgenia Shanskaya (Shaninka student, MAAS managing partner), Ksenia Anfimova (Shaninka student, research intern at ANR-Lab NRU HSE), Kirill Chichaev (Shaninka student)

In 2012, an international conference titled «Embeddedness and Beyond: Do Sociological Theories Meet Economic Realities?» was held in Moscow, with its program built around the socioeconomic concepts of «embeddedness» and «embedding.»

These concepts were first introduced into sociological theory by Karl Polanyi in 1944. Although initially «embeddedness» became an established term within network theory, debates surrounding this theoretical framework expanded its area of application. It was significantly enriched with institutional and cultural arguments, as well as by linking it to the performativity thesis, and classifying various forms of embeddedness.

Economic sociology emerged and for a long time developed within the theory of social embeddedness of economic actions. However, it is possible that this canonical concept is no longer conducive to generating new knowledge and instead works more like an invisible «skeleton» for functioning within the field of economic sociologists’ research thought.

We find it interesting to make an institutional checkpoint and discuss where the debates have led researchers within this rather broad conceptual framework of the embeddedness of economic actions, what has changed over the past 13 years of fruitful theoretical exploration, and what perspectives exist today for further discussions in this field.

The goal of the section is to bring together researchers interested in discussing the boundaries and opportunities of embeddedness as a concept, identifying new empirical and theoretical approaches, and evaluating its relevance for analyzing modern economic behavior.
Discussing the productivity of the concept cannot be imagined without empirical studies; therefore, we welcome applied and practical works whose authors have drawn on this theory.