Difference between social work and the work of an economist:

(a) The sociological approach looks at economic behaviour in a broader context of social norms, values, practices and interest. The corporate sector managers are aware of this. The large investment in the advertisement industry is directly linked to the need to re-shape lifestyles and consumption patterns.

(b) The defined scope of economics has helped in facilitating its development as a highly focused, coherent discipline, Sociologists often enter economists for the precision of their technology and the exactness of their measures. And the ability to translate the results of their theoretical work into practical suggestions having measure implications for public policy. Yet economists' predictive ability often suffer precisely because of their neglect of individual behaviour, cultural norms and institutional resistance which sociologists study.

(c) Sociology, unlike economics, usually does not provide technical solutions. But it encourages a questioning and critical perspective. This helps in questioning basic assumptions. Recent trends have seen a resurgence of economic sociology perhaps because of both this wider and critical perspective of sociology.

(d) Sociology provides a clearer or more adequate understanding of a social situation than existed before. This can be either on the level of factual knowledge, or through gaining an improved group of why something is happening (in other words, by means of theoretical understanding).