Rainer Diaz-Bone (University of Lucerne, Switzerland) and
Guillemette de Larquier (University of Lille, France) (eds.)
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
This handbook provides a thorough introduction to the economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC). With its origins in French structuralism and sociological pragmatism, EC/SC is a heterodox approach which focuses on the study of economic conventions as socio-cultural frames through which economic actors must coordinate, interpret, and evaluate their actions. Intrinsically interdisciplinary, EC/SC has a range of applications from economics, statistics, economic sociology, educational sociology, the analysis of different kinds of markets, the study of culture, politics, law, geography, history, the political economy of health, agricultural economics, to urban studies and many others. This approach integrates the experience of many scientific fields and combines a full range of quantitative and qualitative methods that would otherwise be separated in traditional analysis.
This handbook presents the concepts, methodologies, studies and achievements of EC/SC for an international and multidisciplinary readership, gathering contributions from a diverse panel of leading institutionalist scholars. This handbook is appropriate for students and researchers interested in learning more about this transdisciplinary practice in institutional analysis.
The handbook will be published in three versions: Step by step, the chapters will first be published online in on SpringerLink in a so-called “Live” version. As soon as all chapters have been published online, a print edition and an e-book edition will be created.
Structure of the handbook
- Introduction
- Foundations
- Positioning and embedding EC/SC
- EC/SC in different research areas and fields: problems, applications and
contributions - Diffusion and perspectives

Chapters online:
- Section 2:
- Rainer Diaz-Bone & Guillemette de Larquier: Conventions: Meanings and Applications of a Core Concept in Economics and Sociology of Conventions
- Section 3:
- Juliette Alenda-Demoutiez & Bruno Boidin: The Global South, Albert Hirschman, and Convention Theory
- Stefano Ponte: Convention Theory and the Governance of Global Value Chains
- Yamina Tadjeddine: Understanding Finance Through Convention Theory
- Section 4:
- Philippe Batifoulier: Health, Conventions, and Society
- Christian Bessy & Claude Didry: Law in Convention Theory: Regulation in Regularities
- Anders Blok : Sustainable Urbanism. Green Engagements and Compromised Conventions in the Twenty-First Century
- Laura Centemeri: Green Justification and Environmental Movements
- Nicolas Da Silva: The Industrialization of Healthcare and Its Critiques
- Anaïs Henneguelle: Socio-economics of Quantification and Value: The Perspective of Convention Theory
- Christian Imdorf & Regula Julia Leemann: Education and Conventions
- Karolin Eva Kappler: E-Health and the Digitization of Health
- Eva Nadai and Anna Gonon : Health and Employment: Convention Theory’s Perspective on Work Incapacity
- Gaël Plumecocq: Approaches to Ecological Problems in Convention Theory: How Legitimate Is Environmentalism?
- Thierry Verstraete: Conventions, Business Model, and Entrepreneurship