An Introduction to Market Devices

Abstract

The social sciences have been providing fertile ground for programmatic calls in recent decades, and this seems particularly true within contemporary economic sociology. Explorations moving in new directions have emerged in this field, often out of epistemic discomfort or as a result of problematic positioning visà-vis mainstream economics. Of particular relevance has been the development of a 'pragmatic turn' in the study of markets and economic activities in general. Some aspects of this pragmatic turn might be identified in a number of recent contributions that have considered multiple regimes of worth or multiple conventions of valuation The works offered in this volume further contribute to these types of concerns, bringing to them new analytical perspectives and empirical materials. They are pragmatic in a number of ways. They tend, for instance, to avoid ex-ante explicative principles and they adopt an anti-essentialist position that is particularly suited to the study of situations of uncertainty. They also focus on actors' capacities to operate across multiple spaces and are attentive to the empirical intricacies of agency. They pay particular attention to the trials in which actors test the resistance that defines the reality of the world surrounding them.

Familiness as a form of value for wineries: a preliminary account

“…This brings us to our second point of introduction: familiness can be better understood as the outcome of the qualification of goods-here, the qualification of the family winery. Our discussion works from the perspective (associated with cultural economy, 'new' economic sociology, and anthropological approaches to the study of markets) that value is a contingent accomplishment, and the market is a lived social practice (Callon et al, 2002;McFall, 2009;Miller, 2008;Muniesa et al, 2007;Slater, 2002). Such an approach may be broadly understood as an 'analysis of the steps through which economic quantities and qualities are formed.…”

Local contexts as activation mechanisms of market development: contemporary art in emerging markets

“…We coin these factors as "activation mechanisms" of market emergence. We define an activation mechanism as a resource or set of resources which enable actors to exploit limited, as more recent Callonian approaches to market emergence suggest, to studying market devices which enable actors to shape market practices and valuation procedures (for an overview, see Muniesa, Millo, and Callon 2007). It should include the motivational side of market emergence as well, in order to understand why, on a micro-level, actors decide to "enter" markets and thereby contribute to their emergence.…”

The dividualised consumer: sketching the new mask of the consumer

“…The 'segments included menopause, getting pregnant, repairing bad credit, and debt relief ' (Mayer & Mitchell, 2012, p. 3). Cookies, ad--servers, ad--networks, ad--exchanges can be described as market devices (see Muniesa, Millo,&Callon, 2007). They are technical instruments that tie people and things together to construct an economic space.…”