The essay analyzes the first phase of the New Economic Sociology through the revision of four approaches that framed the studies of market transactions. The argument is that these studies have departed from the Neoclassical Theory and founded their new identity in opposition to the Methodological Individualism. Now the challenge is to advance the sociological analysis of the economic relationships beyond the statement that the economic sphere is socially constructed, that social institutions and social structure are important to economic actions and that rationality is just one type of behavior among others. Finally, it discusses some questions that are part of the agenda of the New Economic Sociology and the main concepts of the Network Analysis.
Economic Sociology; network of economic relations; sociological studies of the market; cooperation and competition; social capital; organizational capital