The social construction of an industry

"The systematic study of collective action by business is an "enfant industry" in the scholarly enterprise. Compared to the thousands of volumes devoted to describing, explaining, and (often) extolling the action of trade unions, those devoted explicitly to trade and employer associations could barely fill a single library shelf. Compared to the heroics of worker demonstrations, strikes, and uprisings, the efforts of capitalists to defend their interests collectively are bound to appear prosaic. If fashion and emotion were not enough, theory has also conspired to discourage the study of cooperation and collusion among consenting capitalists. Liberals try to convince us that only the competitive interaction of individuals as producers/ consumers and citizens/voters leads to social choices and determines societal outcomes; Marxists assure us that capitalists do not need to act collectively, their dominance being assured "at the point of production" or "through the state". Nevertheless and without any specific protection or subsidization, an enfant industry of studying collective action by business has emerged and even begun to prosper during the past two decades. It has had to cut across the usual compartments of academic specialization and to develop its own concepts and assumptions. It has relied heavily on international comparative analysis among advanced industrial societies, which imposes a weighty burden on individual scholars or extracts high transaction costs from collaborative efforts. It is still a hazardous and difficult market to enter, especially for a graduate student attempting his first major piece of research."