Markets and market exchanges are entering into more and more areas of social life. Despite numerous anti-market efforts, there are few signs of this trend being reversed. Improving our understanding of the markets that surround us therefore remains an important task for social science. In this respect, both pro- and anti-market arguments are usually based on highly idealized images of how markets work. Hence there are good reasons to address fundamental questions about “really existing markets” (Boyer, 1997), such as: What different market forms can we observe? How do markets come into existence and how are they sustained? Such questions will also include how pro- and anti-market agents engage with markets.
Ironically, the two disciplines that would seem most fit to study markets, economics and marketing, for a long time showed a waning interest in them. More recently, however, there has been renewed interest in markets within both fields. Thus, both economists (e.g. Roth 2007) and marketing scholars (e.g. Penaloza and Venkatesh 2006; Araujo 2007) take interest in how markets are being shaped, albeit from radically different points of view. Indeed, a renewed interest in markets and their construction can be detected within social science at large. One of the more influential efforts has been the so-called performativity program (Callon 1998), which has attracted attention within Science and Technology Studies, Economic sociology, Marketing, Accounting, and Organization. Empirically, the renewed interest in markets has mainly concerned the financial markets (see e.g. Knorr Cetina and Preda 2006; MacKenzie et al. 2007; Callon et al. 2007; and Pinch and Swedberg 2008), although mass retailing (Azimont and Araujo, 2007; Kjellberg and Helgesson, 2007; Cochoy 2008) and business-to-business markets (Rinallo and Golfetto, 2006; Finch and Acha, 2008; Simakova and Neyland, 2008) have received some attention.
This workshop aims to attract scholars from a wide variety of disciplines who share an interest in studying how markets work, for example sub disciplines of business studies, STS, economic sociology, economics, economic geography, consumer research, cultural studies and anthropology. The general ambition is to stimulate interdisciplinary discussion about markets and further develop our theoretical and analytical tools for understanding the product and service markets encountered by firms and other organizations, marketers, individuals, and regulators.
We welcome papers addressing a number of issues related to such markets, including:
• the various forms markets may assume
• the processes through which markets are realized
• the import of economic theories at large on markets (economics, marketing, strategy)
• the role of devices and metrics in shaping markets
• the role of “market professionals” in the organizing of markets
• how regulators act in and on markets
• how representations of markets contribute to shape the markets they depict
• how market agencies are equipped
• how markets produce values
Professor Bernard Cova, Euromed Marseille,
Professor Barbara Czarniawska, Gothenburg School of Economics
and
Professor Steve Woolgar, Saïd Business School, Oxford
We are also investigating the possibility of a second special issue on “The organizing of mundane markets” in an organization journal.
These special issues will provide participants with excellent opportunities to publish their workshop contributions in a relevant and dedicated context.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Hans Kjellberg Associate professor, Dept of Marketing and Strategy, Stockholm School of Economics Debbie Harrison Associate professor, Dept of Strategy and Logistics, Norwegian School of Management, BI Claes-Fredrik Helgesson Professor, Dept of Technology and Social Change, Linköping University Susi Geiger Senior Lecturer, School of Business, University College Dublin
REFERENCES
Araujo, L. (2007) 'Markets, Market-Making and Marketing', Marketing Theory, 7, 211-226. Azimont, F. and Araujo, L. (2007) 'Category reviews as market-shaping events', Industrial Marketing Management, 36, 849-860. Boyer, R. (1997) 'The Variety and Unequal Performance of Really Existing Markets: Farewell to Dr. Pangloss?' in J.R. Hollingsworth and R. Boyer (eds.) Contemporary Capitalism. The Embeddedness of Institutions., pp. 55-93. Callon, M. (Ed.) (1998) The Laws of the Markets, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers / The Sociological Review. Callon, M., Millo, Y. and Muniesa, F. (Eds.) (2007) Market Devices, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing/The Sociological Review. Cochoy, F. (2008) 'Calculation, qualculation, calqulation: shopping cart arithmetic, equipped cognition and the clustered consumer', Marketing Theory, 8, 15-44. Finch, J.H. and Acha, V.L. (2008) 'Making and exchanging a second-hand oil field, considered in an industrial marketing setting', Marketing Theory, 8, 45-66. Kjellberg, H. and Helgesson, C.-F. (2007) 'The mode of exchange and shaping of markets: distributor influence on the Swedish post-war food industry', Industrial Marketing Management, 36, 861-878. Knorr Cetina, K. and Preda, A. (Eds.) (2005) The Sociology of the Financial Markets, Oxford, Oxford University Press. MacKenzie, D., Muniesa, F. and Siu, L. (Eds.) (2007) Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press. Peñaloza, L. and Venkatesh, A. (2006) 'Further evolving the new dominant logic of marketing: from services to the social construction of markets', Marketing Theory, 6, 299 - 316. Pinch, T.J. and Swedberg, R. (Eds.) (2008) Living in a material world, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press. Rinallo, D. and Golfetto, F. (2006) 'Representing markets: The shaping of fashion trends by French and Italian fabric companies', Industrial Marketing Management, 35, 856-869. Roth, A.E. (2007) 'The Art of Designing Markets', Harvard Business Review, 85, 118-126. Simakova, E. and Neyland, D. (2008) 'Marketing mobile futures: assembling constituencies and creating compelling stories for an emerging technology', Marketing Theory, 8, 91-116.
PRACTICALITIES
LOCATION
The workshop will take place June 3-4, 2010 in the small town of Sigtuna located north of Stockholm, only 20 minutes from Arlanda international airport.
The workshop location is IFL Kampastenconference center
We recommend all participants to stay at IFL Kampasten(workshop location)during the workshop.
In case you need a reservation there, please contact Kampasten@ifl.se. Note that rooms are not any more guaranteed at this stage
REGISTRATION DEADLINE
The registration deadline is May 3, 2010
FEES
The fees include participation to the workshop, workshop documents, 2 lunches, the workshop dinner and morning and afternoon refreshments.
The special rate of 185 EUR is offered to doctoral students (CV required)
Fees will be posted shortly
Cancellations made before May 15, 2010 will be reimbursed minus 20% of the total fee. No reimbursement will be possible after that date.
Payments should be made by :
The following credit cards: Visa or Eurocard/Mastercard/Access
