Viviana Zelizer
Viviana Zelizer is a prominant economic sociologist who focuses on the attribution of cultural and moral meaning to the economy. A constant theme in her work is economic valuation of the sacred, as found in such contexts as life insurance settlements and economic transactions with sexual intimates.
An important concept is the exchange circuit, or loops of commodities that can legitimately be exchanged for one another. When two actors participate in multiple parallel circuits, such as both sex-affection and services-wages, this forms a "differentiated tie." Zelizer contrasts this approach to the intersection of profane and sacred from both the "nothing but" approach of social exchange theory and the "hostile worlds" perspective of moral indignation.
Major works
- Viviana Zelizer (2005). The Purchase of Intimacy
- Viviana Zelizer (1994). The Social Meaning of Money : Pin Money, Paychecks, Poor Relief, and Other Currencies
- Viviana Zelizer (1985). Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children
- Viviana Zelizer (1979). Morals and Markets: The Development of Life Insurance in the United States'