This handbook provides a thorough introduction to the economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC). With its origins in French heterodox institutional economics and sociological pragmatism, EC/SC is an internationally established approach which focuses on the study of economic conventions as socio-cultural logics through which economic actors must coordinate, interpret, and evaluate their actions. Intrinsically interdisciplinary, EC/SC has a range of applications from labor economics, statistics, economic sociology, educational sociology, political economy of health, agricultural economics and worlds of food, the analysis of different kinds of markets, to the study of ecology, law, finance, geography, politics, culture 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 leading scholars in the field. This handbook is appropriate for students and researchers interested in learning more about this transdisciplinary practice in institutional analysis.

Rainer Diaz-Bone is professor of sociology at the University of Lucerne (Switzerland). He received his PhD in sociology at the University of Trier (Germany) and his habilitation at the Free University of Berlin (Germany). 

Guillemette de Larquier is professor of economics at the University of Lille (France). She received her PhD and habilitation in economics at University of Paris Nanterre (France).