Market sociology

The market sociology or sociology of the market is a research area of ​​sociology within which markets become the subject of sociological analysis.

overview

Markets have been around since ancient times , probably since the Neolithic Revolution . Since then, they have contributed significantly to the importance of the trade routes, trade fairs and cities that have developed. In modern times , markets are viewed as important institutions that are vital to the development of capitalism .

Market sociology representatives deal with the structural, institutional and cultural foundations of markets. This genuinely sociological explanation goes further than many economic approaches - especially neoclassical economic theory - in which the market participant is conceptualized as a "homo oeconomicus" who competes with other market participants and is purely subject to the market economy logic of supply and demand . The closest to her is Hans Albert .

From a sociological point of view, however, they do not arise “spontaneously” and do not regulate themselves, but require religious (cf. Kula ) or political and legal protection (cf. trade fair , market law , stacking law ). Thus, sociologically, the extensive social aspects are considered that are necessary for markets to become possible (e.g. regional and long-distance trade , actor skills for overcoming uncertainty and the interpretation of market situations, cultural systems of knowledge and religious practices as the basis for this Economics, the role of the state as guarantor of legal systems and a supervisory authority, among other things). Ferdinand Tönnies , Max Weber and Bronislaw Malinowski have already presented fundamental studies here. The sociology of the market received new impulses from the so-called new economic sociology , which developed in the last 25 years mainly in the US, especially following Harrison C. White and Mark Granovetter . However, the most recent work no longer regards market sociology as a branch of economic sociology.

The beginnings of market sociology

The sociological examination of markets can already be found in early theorists such as Adam Smith , Karl Marx , Ferdinand Tönnies , Max Weber and also Georg Simmel . For Smith, the market is an institution that enables selfish traders to satisfy their exchange interests while at the same time promoting the division of labor and thus the common good . Although he projected this form of exchange - increasing labor productivity through the use of specialization advantages - back into the past, the interest of economic research narrowed to the form of markets, which had dominated since the 19th century, in which goods were exchanged for the purpose of profit .

Only Tönnies and Max Weber and the British School of Social Anthropology (Bronisław Malinowski and others) came to a genuinely sociological view of markets. In contrast to the classical economy, which derived from the necessity of the individual procurement of food and the role of work within the community the compulsion or even a natural drive of people to exchange and from this derived the existence of markets, Tönnies and Max Weber emphasized the socio-historical The importance of long-distance trade , which is gradually integrating more and more regions and societies into the world market and regulating the relationships between them and people solely through exchange value. This long-distance trade could have very different triggers, e.g. B. the slave hunt or the search for rare objects. Malinowski also showed that markets first came about through the exchange between regions and communities and not through the necessity of exchange within the communities.

Marx and Weber also approach the phenomenon of the market from a conflict-sociological perspective. While for Marx the market is an instrument of exploitation for the creation and consolidation of class differences in capitalism , Weber shows the complexity of the market in his writings on the economy and society : The market is based on mechanisms such as power, conflicts and different interests; the exchange is always a competition. In addition, Weber's Protestant ethics deal essentially with the causes of the development of the capitalist market in the “rational” Occident and with the role of the market in the development of the occidental city . Georg Simmel also examines a partial aspect of the market in his "Philosophy of Money", in which economic exchange processes through the economic medium " money " as the central institution of the market are in the foreground.

Malinowski is the first sociologist to make a strict distinction between economic and social (“ceremonial”, institutional) exchange. They are also exchanged when there is no need for it from an economic point of view. In the ceremonial circle of give and take, as in the exchange within the framework of the kula ring on some islands of Melanesia , the exact equivalence of the objects exchanged is not made; Rather, the aim is to acquire particularly prestigious objects, a secondary aim perhaps to avoid endogamy and incest . In these simply structured societies, generated surpluses are not exchanged individually, but centralized and stored as a reserve for emergency situations or used for joint consumption, e.g. B. in the form of festivals and ritual wasteful consumption.

Another important pioneer of market sociology is the economic historian Karl Polanyi , who in his work "The Great Transformation" published in 1944 examines the interaction between the emergence of market economies and nation states. Polanyi regards markets as previously embedded in society and is critical of the fact that markets are becoming independent and separated from modern society: only through market liberalism will this relationship be reversed and society will be embedded in the economy. In all societies before the 17th century, the economy was not primarily based on markets, but on three principles regulated by social norms: reciprocity of exchange (symmetry), redistribution (centralization and redistribution by collective institutions) and production for personal use ( Self-sufficiency of the closed household, the Oikos of Aristotle , which does not need a market). The centralization of products is necessary because the results of collective efforts e.g. B. are not regularly divisible when hunting and the dispute about it threatens the cohesion of the community, or because one has to keep supplies for times of need. The individual possession of goods was far less important than the cohesion of the community. The exchange between cattle breeders and farmers living on the same territory in Africa, the Roman economy with its redistribution of grain and olive oil or the tax regulations between the various classes of European feudal society have also been subordinated to these principles. Even if this exchange contained elements of exploitation in varying degrees, its aim was never to make a profit. So u. a. feudal vassals result from such regulated exchange relationships. There have always been phases, for example in the trading centers of Hellenism , where the pursuit of profit dominated exchange; but this remained the exception until mercantilism . The three principles of symmetry, centrality and self-sufficiency that apply in every form of economic activity would not automatically result in new institutions like those of the market. Symmetry (reciprocity) only links existing actors and institutions, centrality (e.g. in the form of taxation) fulfills numerous different functions and autarky is only one characteristic of existing groups among others. The market is more than the sum of these characteristics; it is not economic constraints, but the ultimately socially based profit motive that is decisive for its emergence .

Markets and Networks

Under the name “New Economic Sociology ”, a sociological research direction has emerged since the 1980s that is dedicated to the study of markets from a structural, network-analytical perspective. The sociological market model by Harrison C. White and the much-cited article "Economic Action and Social Structure - The Problem of Embeddedness" by Mark Granovetter on the embedding of markets in social structures - are the starting points for numerous economic- sociological approaches to what is mostly economically examined Phenomenon of the market. Polanyi had already formulated this idea in 1944 ( submerged in [...] social relationships , ie "immersed in social relationships "); but that had been temporarily forgotten since the 1950s.

Granovetter does not conceptualize market participants as purely rational actors, but focuses on their integration into social structures or networks. Economic relationships between individuals and companies are therefore always embedded in social relationships. According to this structural perspective, markets themselves are networks: the prominent economic sociologist Harrison C. White originated the idea that markets emerge from networks in the first place. Using the example of production markets, White shows in his essay "Where Do Markets Come From?" From 1981 how a mutual observation of product prices and the associated qualities of other market participants takes place in networks, which ultimately constitutes the market. The price is seen here as a signal. Accordingly, markets are not structured (solely) through the mechanisms of supply and demand, but rather through the positioning of market participants in certain quality niches that can be identified and occupied by observing the respective competitors.

The network perspective on the market was taken up by numerous students of White and other economic sociologists who dealt with markets as networks as part of the New Economic Sociology . For example, there are empirical analyzes of networks as a diffusion medium for information in markets, e.g. B. from Wayne Baker, or to networks as solution instruments for cooperation problems, through which trust between market participants can arise, z. B. by Brian Uzzi. Representatives of market sociological analyzes are currently still z. B. Neil Fligstein, Paul DiMaggio, Joel Podolny, Richard Swedberg and Viviana Zelizer. Many of the studies they have written can already be assigned to applied market research .

An example of a market-sociological concept closely linked to network analysis as a method is the idea of ​​"Structural Holes" by Ronald S. Burt. According to Burt, differences in the dynamics of markets and the associated opportunities and barriers to entrepreneurial activity can be explained by access to so-called “structural holes”. Structural holes are "holes" in the network; H. Areas characterized by the absence of relationships between actors. Filling a structural hole represents a possibility of being able to bring about advantages in entrepreneurial activity - namely through the advantage of information gained through it.

Another approach, which Joel Podolny is particularly following, but which was also focused on by social anthropology and ethnology of the early 20th century, is the idea of ​​the meaning of status in markets: According to him, networks can not only be used to exchange resources, but also they also make it possible to observe the quality of the other participants, which ultimately leads to the development of status hierarchies.

The idea of ​​markets as networks of social structures was finally extended by White himself: According to him, the social structure of the market works through “stories” that market participants tell about themselves and others. This conception of networks that emerge from discourse structures opens up the structural market analysis for cultural-sociological extensions. An empirical study of narrativity as a form of coordination in markets following White's considerations can currently be found e.g. B. with Sophie Mützel.

Influenced by this, but also by influences from the French-speaking area of ​​u. a. Laurent Thévenot and Michel Callon , market sociology is spreading increasingly in German-speaking countries and can now be described as an independent branch of research that is constantly developing.

Markets and Culture

Building on the initially strongly structured discussion of markets, a research direction developed within the New Economic Sociology that increasingly integrates cultural-sociological approaches into the analysis of markets: In more recent market-sociological studies, not only the structural influences of social relationships on economic processes are taken into account, but also their embedding in cultural contexts and their dependency on cultural practices.

Viviana Zelizer, for example, examines markets from a genuinely cultural-sociological perspective by emphasizing the level of significance of economic transactions: Using examples such as life insurance and the purchase of intimate relationships, Zelizer shows the cultural and symbolic dimensions of exchange : her thesis is that money is always with us private relationships connected and thus emotionally charged. Furthermore, as her research shows, not only trust but also the “ morals ” of the product play a role in the sales relationship between producer and consumer .

With his ethnographic analysis of Wall Street, Mitchel Y. Abolafia also makes an extensive cultural and sociological contribution to the sociology of financial markets: In the resulting book “Making Markets” he shows how markets can be understood as cultures, that is, as places of repeated interaction that is institutionalized Relationships and systems of meaning are shaped.

Other works in cultural sociology deal with the institutional embedding of markets. These include, for example, the work of Frank Dobbin, Neil Fligstein and Paul DiMaggio. They particularly point out the influence of institutions such as rules, power and norms on cognitions and actions in markets.

Current approaches in market sociology

Following these two larger trends - "Markets and Networks" and "Markets and Culture" - there are currently numerous theoretical and empirical contributions to the sociology of the market. On the one hand, the idea of ​​markets as network structures is constantly evolving: after a division by Ezra Zuckerman, markets are either understood as networks of exchange relationships, or market actors are understood as embedded in networks, or interorganizational networks are at the center of sociological (network) analyzes . Furthermore, there are numerous contributions that further advance the cultural-sociological analysis of markets. These can be sorted thematically into different areas, whereby the following proposal is by no means free of overlaps.

Markets as fields

Pierre Bourdieu's theory of practice represents a starting point for recent market-sociological studies: In markets as fields, economic, cultural, social and symbolic capital are unevenly distributed. The field analysis can then be carried out empirically with the correspondence analysis, for example. Particularly in the area of ​​neo-institutional market sociology there are connections to this type of practical theoretical institutional analysis.

The embeddedness approach

Based on the concept of "embeddedness" or the embedding of markets in social structures by Mark Granovetter, Sharon Zukin and Paul DiMaggio developed a differentiated concept: According to them, markets are not only structurally but also culturally, cognitively and politically embedded. Jens Beckert is currently concerned with the embedding of economic activities and examines from this perspective how coordination in markets is possible despite uncertainty .

The performativity of markets

The idea that markets are produced in a performative manner stems primarily from the field of sociological analysis of financial markets - also known as “Social Studies of Finance”. The performativity thesis, u. a. represented by Donald MacKenzie and Michel Callon, ascribes an important role to economists as constructors of markets: Proponents of this idea assume that the economic sciences through their analysis and description of the economy or economic structures such as the market, i.e. the object of their discipline, quasi "created" yourself. Economic action is therefore a result of calculative processes. The idea of ​​the performativity of the economy is influenced by the Actor Network Theory Bruno Latours and Michel Callons, within which the role of technical artefacts is emphasized, because calculation and modeling always contain specific technologies. This perspective, which integrates approaches from science research, is particularly prominent in the sociology of financial markets, but it is currently also being transferred to broader market-sociological analyzes.

Économie des Conventions

In France, the interdisciplinary approach of the “économie des conventions” has established itself as one of the most important areas of economic sociology in recent decades. The central concept is that of the “ conventions ” that contribute in markets to overcoming uncertainty and making quality constructions and coordination possible. Conventions are to be understood as logics of action or schemes of meaning that are suitable for the evaluation of economic actors, goods and services in the context of market sociology. The collectively shared conventions or orders of justification are constituted according to the situation and, depending on their success, are made permanent. The French approach of the “économies des conventions” can be understood as an institutional theoretical approach. Markets, networks and organizations are understood here as institutions for collective coordination ( production , distribution , consumption ) made possible by a plurality of conventions .

Markets as inner environments

According to Niklas Luhmann's theory of social systems , the market can also be thought of as the 'inner environment' of the economy. As the horizon for all possible investment decisions, the market appears as the environment of the actually realized economic investments. According to Dirk Baecker , such 'inner environments' can also be observed with a view to other functional systems of society. Correspondingly, in the work of Steffen Roth, the question arises of how a general market concept must be ordered, on the basis of which markets can be observed in ages and regions of the world in which functional differentiation does not play the main role (e).

Current representatives of market sociology in German-speaking countries

In the German-speaking countries, market sociology has spread increasingly in recent years, so that currently an increasing number of sociologists who deal with markets both theoretically and empirically can be named: Among others, Patrick Aspers, Jens Beckert , Rainer Diaz-Bone , Heiner Ganßmann , Karin Knorr-Cetina and Sophie Mützel on some important representatives of (financial) market sociological analyzes in German-speaking countries. The Max Planck Institute in Cologne and its research area “Sociology of the Market” should be mentioned as institutionally significant, but there is also, for example, the graduate college “Markets and Social Spaces in Europe” at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg and some Chairs with an economic or market-sociological orientation.

literature

• Hans Albert : Market Sociology and Decision Logic , 1967.
• Dirk Baecker : Markets. In: A. Harrington, B. Marshall, H.-P. Müller (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Social Theory. Routledge, London / New York 2006, pp. 333-335.
• Wayne E. Baker: Market Networks and Corporate Behavior. In: American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 96, 1990, pp. 589-625.
• Jens Beckert: The limits of the market. The social foundations of economic efficiency. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997.
• Jens Beckert, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Heiner Ganßmann: Markets as social structures. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2007.
• Ronald S. Burt: Structural Holes. The Social Structure of Competition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass. 1992.
• G. Buurman, S. Trüby (Ed.): Geldkulturen. Fink, Munich 2014.
• Michel Callon (Ed.): The Laws of the Markets. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford 1998.
• Rainer Diaz-Bone, Gertraude Krell (Ed.): Discourse and Economy. Discourse analytical perspectives on markets and organizations. VS Verlag for Social Sciences, Wiesbaden 2009.
• Rainer Diaz-Bone, Robert Salais (Ed.): The Économie des Conventions - Transdisciplinary Discussions and Perspectives. In: Historical Social Research . Volume 37, No. 4, 2012. ( gesis.org ( Memento from May 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ))
• Neil Fligstein: The Architecture of Markets. An Economic Sociology of Twenty-First-Century Capitalist Societies. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2001.
• Michael Florian, Frank Hillebrandt (Ed.): Pierre Bourdieu. New Perspectives for the Sociology of Business. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2006.
• Neil Fligstein, Luke Dauter: The Sociology of Markets. In: Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 33, 2007, pp. 105-128.
• Marion Fourcade: Theories of Markets and Theories of Society. In: American Behavioral Scientist. Vol. 50, 2007, pp. 1015-1034.
• Pierre François: Sociologie des marchés. Armand Colin, Paris 2008.
• Mark S. Granovetter : Economic Action and Social Structure. The problem of embeddedness. In: The American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 91, 1985, pp. 481-510.
• Lisa Herzog , Axel Honneth (ed.): The value of the market. An economic-philosophical discourse from the 18th century to the present . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014.
• Karin Knorr-Cetina , Alex Preda: The Sociology of Financial Markets. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005.
• Klaus Nathaus, David Gilgen (Ed.): Change of Markets and Market Societies: Concepts and Case Studies . In: Historical Social Research . Volume 36, No. 3, Special Issue, 2011. ( gesis.org ( Memento from May 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ))
• Dieter Pfister : Culture and market - Swiss culture market in the area of ​​tension between cultural promotion goals and sales market needs. Basel 1998.
• Joel M. Podolny: Status Signals. A Sociological Study of Market Competition. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2005.
• Steffen Roth: Not all markets are the same. Thesis for the foundation of a general market sociology. Carl Auer Verlag, Heidelberg 2010.
• Richard Swedberg: Principles of Economic Sociology . Princeton University Press, Princeton 2003.
• Sebastian Teupe: Everyday Transactions and Great Transformations. Markets and Marketization from the Perspective of New Economic Sociology . In: Contemporary historical research . Volume 12, 2015, pp. 477-487.
• Ferdinand Tönnies : Spirit of the Modern Age . 1935. In: Ferdinand Tönnies complete edition . Vol. 22, Berlin / New York 1998, pp. 3-223.
• Max Weber : Economy and Society . 1922.
• Harrison C. White: Where Do Markets Come From ? In: American Journal of Sociology. Vol. 87, 1981, pp. 517-547.
• Harrison C. White: Markets From Networks. Socioeconomic Models of Production. Princeton University Press, Princeton 2002.
• Viviana Zelizer: The Social Meaning of Money. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1997.
• Ezra Zuckerman: On “Networks and Markets” by Rauch and Casella. Review. In: Journal of Economic Literature. Vol. 41, p. 2003, pp. 545-565.

Web links

• Economic Sociology Section - German Society for Sociology

Individual evidence

1. ^ Bronislaw Malinowski: Argonauts of the Western Pacific. , 1922.
2. ↑ Frank Hillebrandt: Practices of Exchange: On the sociology of symbolic forms of reciprocity. Springer, 2009.
3. ^ Richard Thurnwald : The human society in its ethno-sociological foundations. Volume 3: Becoming, changing and shaping the economy in the light of human research. Berlin u. a. 1932.
4. ^ Karl Polanyi: The Great Transformation. Boston 1944, p. 46 ff.
5. ↑ p. 56 ff.
6. ↑ 1944, p. 46.
7. ↑ It should be noted that the sociological concept of the social network was not included here , but the business management one .
8. ^ Steffen Roth: Leaving commonplaces on the commonplace. Cornerstones of a polyphonic market theory. In: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry. Vol. 10, No. 3, 2012, pp. 43-52.