A socio‐economic framework of interpretation and analysis

Abstract

Purpose – Economics and sociology are two different theoretical disciplines dealing with one and the same subject. The aim of the paper is to integrate the two paradigms into one framework of interpretation and analysis. Design/methodology/approach – Economics is presented as a science that approaches human behaviour being subject to the omni-present phenomenon of scarcity, assuming rationality and social independence of human actors. Sociology is presented as a science that interprets human behaviour as group behaviour. Groups are motivated to rank one another in terms of status. Integration must take place by relating the two analyses based on these paradigms. Findings – The basic economic framework is about the relationship between preferences and scarce resources, determining the structure of allocation of goods. The basic sociological framework is about the relationship between the distribution of socially valued goods and the culture that gives goods their social meaning. A socio-economic framework is about the relation between allocation, distribution, culture and preferences. Originality/value – When applying the socio-economic framework to real-life phenomena both the economic and the social motives play a role in the explanation, which is not the case in applied economics and applied sociology.