Political Economy Group

‘PEG’ is the Political Economy Group in the Department of Organization, which contains scholars who work in the areas of International Political Economy, Economic Sociology, Economic Geography, and Organization Studies. The persistent theme in the group is how markets are constructed and governed, with a focus on establishing links between macro-meso and micro-meso level interactions between organizations and actors. The group draws on institutional theory, institutional economics, the sociology of professions, social network theory, field-theoretic analysis, and other bodies of theory.

The group’s work concentrates on empirical cases, developing cases on socio-economic phenomena in Denmark and also internationally and transnationally. These cases are typically built on both qualitative and quantitative foundations. Qualitatively we rely on interviews, participant observation, and archival research. Quantitatively we have a strong interest in computational approaches including the use of Social Network Analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, Sequence Analysis, and Text Analysis, and other techniques available in the sociological toolkit. We hold regular seminars focused on work-in-progress papers. 

Research

Current research topics include:

- Transnational professionals (e.g. in consultancies, global professional service firms, standard-setters, advocacy networks, sustainability networks); 

- National and international elites (e.g. Danish power elites and their career trajectories and backgrounds, transnational elite groups); 

- International organizations (e.g. organizational dynamics in IMF, OECD, global public policy hybrid organizations); 

- Corporate interlock networks (e.g. among chemical producing corporations);  

- Global Innovation Networks (e.g. energy systems, research and development networks); 

- Global Wealth Chains (e.g. tax avoidance schemes; networks of professional advisers);  

- Market Emergence (e.g. cross-national fertility markets); 

- Organizational inequalities (e.g. labor market stratification, social inclusion/exclusion); 

- Professional ecologies (e.g. strategies of professional control in financial and environmental governance). 

Top journal publications in recent years have included articles in the following: Annual Review of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Environment and Planning A, New Political Economy, Organization, Organization Studies, Public Administration, Regulation & Governance, Review of International Political Economy, Social Networks, Socioeconomic Review, Sociology, The Sociological Review, and other venues where socio-economic phenomena is debated.  

The group is active in attending conferences and association meetings. The most common are: 

ASA - American Sociological Association 

Dansk Sociologi forening 

EGOS –European Group for Organizational Studies 

ESA – European Sociological Association 

ISA – International Sociological Association 

ISA – International Studies Association 

SASE - Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics