'Economic culture' as an explanatory tool in transformation research

This article reviews theoretical suggestions concerning the conceptualisation of economic culture that were made in a series of publications on the cultural dimension of post-communist transformation by the Institute for Research on Eastern Europe in Bremen. Analyses are made particularly of the points where culture on the one hand and institutions, social capital and civil society on the other overlap and differ and from these comparisons consequences are drawn for use of the concept of economic culture in transformation research. The article concludes that economic culture is a conceptual category in its own right, neither irreducible to the level of institutions, in the sense that institutional economics understands them, nor to social capital or civil society. If, moreover, economic culture is to be used as a tool for explaining socio-economic processes, its strict separation from institutions, social capital and civil society is essential.