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Warren Samuels wrote : 
If you think of sociology as dealing with large and small structures of interpersonal
relationships, the sociology of economics has to do with the study of the organization of
economists, e.g., their socialized motivations, hierarchical structure of esteem and
sacrifice, and so on.  It is an aspect of the methodology of economics, an aspect of the
social nature and structure of science, an aspect of the study of economists as sets of
interrelationships.
 
And in another context he said of Pat Gunning's comment that" the methodology of
economics, by my definition, refers to the study of the unified method of reasoning." TOO
EXCLUSIVIST FOR MY TASTE AS SOCIOLOGY OF ECONOMICS; HENCE, AN EXAMPLE OF HOW PREMISES AND
PRECONCEPTIONS INFLUENCE FINDINGS
 
If it is not too late to add to the thread, I would like to suggest a feminist perspective
in an excellent article by Diana Strassmann: "Feminist Thought and Economics; What Do the
Visigoths Know?" in AER, vol.84, no. 2, May 1994.
 
By applying feminist perspective to the sociology of economics partially captured in
Warren Samuel's first statement above, she writes about feminist and critical
interpretative theories and about  "situated knowledge". According to her [This]
"conception characterizes knowledge as inextricably linked to the lives of its producers
and the circumstances of its production, and not an independent object., theoretically
ascertainable through a purely "objective" process. According to these theories,
intellectual communities tend to reproduce themselves in their own image via the selection
and training of prospective members, and through the restrictions on the rhetoric of
inquiry." Her analysis is relevant also to the status of HET in  the economics discipline
and education. Strassmann  finds the need to use theories of knowledge that bring hidden
interests and values into relief [this follows the line of thought in Warren's second
statement above] and claims that this does not negate the validity of a sorting process to
produce a generally acceptable scientific discourse. Not surprisingly, she concludes by
advancing the need for opening the disciplinary gates which would make economics more
honest.
 
I feel that if sociology of economics is taught in the economics departments, we may
produce better economists by deepening their understanding of their own humanity, not to
mention an appropriate reduction in their well know hubris.
 
Sumitra 
 
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