Q.How does the chapter distinguish sociology’s approach to studying economic activity from that of economics, and its approach to studying power and authority from that of political science?

Sociology broadens both economics and political science by situating economic activity and political power within their wider social and cultural context. …

The chapter distinguishes sociology from economics and from political science not by claiming they study entirely separate things, but by showing that sociology insists on placing the very same activity — economic behaviour, or the exercise of power — within a wider social and cultural context that these disciplines, on their own traditional terms, tend to leave out.

With economics, the discipline conventionally studies production, exchange, and distribution largely in market terms — output, prices, income, rational calculation. Sociology's approach to economic activity asks how much of that behaviour is actually shaped by social and cultural forces rather than pure economic rationality. The chapter's own questions make this concrete: do advertisements actually influence what people consume, beyond rational need? Is the idea of a "good life" defined only in economic terms, or shaped by culture and social values too? Are habits of saving and spending themselves culturally formed rather than simply individual rational choices? By raising these questions, sociology treats economic activity as embedded within social relationships and culture, not as a self-contained economic sphere that can be understood on its own. …