Regulation Theory

• Main Author: Jessop, Bob
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2015
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosr042.pub2; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2F9781405165518.wbeosr042.pub2; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeosr042.pub2

Regulation theory, which is also known as the regulation approach or regulation school, is a distinctive paradigm in critical political economy. It originated in Europe and North America in the 1970s in response to the emerging crises of postwar western economies and has since been applied to many other periods and contexts. Its name derives from its French originators, who describe it as la théorie de régulation or l'approche en termes de régulation . Similar ideas were developed by other schools. The core concern of all such work is the contradictory and conflictual dynamics of capitalism considered in economic and extraeconomic terms. In highlighting the latter, regulation theorists draw on, and contribute to, other social sciences. Regulation theory was influential in economic, urban, and regional sociology in the 1980s and 1990s. It remains influential in economic sociology, and, following the Asian, North Atlantic, and Eurozone financial crises, has become influential in the sociology of finance. Its influence was initially related to its Marxist roots and is now related more to its links to institutionalism, the study of varieties of capitalism, renewed interest in economic and financial crises, and, finally, to its heuristic power in organizing research on a wide range of sociological themes.