Enchanted Exchanges: Evidence from Media Coverage of the Maker Movement

• In Event: 355 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 13. Varieties of Moral Markets

Abstract

Recent research in organizational theory has revealed that, at their birth, new markets and organizational forms resemble social movements, as those drawn to risky and unrecognizable ventures often have social and political as well as economic goals. As markets become more legitimate and profitable the market undergoes a process of disenchantment: the value-rational orientation of initiators gives way to the instrumental rationality of market actors. In this study we use the case of the Maker Movement, an education and technology-focused movement that has given birth to a market, to challenge and append theories of movements and markets, and construct and test a theory of “enchanted exchange.” We propose that industries and organizations may use collective emotional events to recharge the beliefs that gave birth to the movement that made the market, even as a market becomes more institutionalized and instrumentally-oriented, and that this leads to an increasing intertwinement between value- and instrumental orientations in such markets. This study highlights a mechanism through which markets and organizations may sustain their initial “enchantment,” contributing to research on the study of movements and markets, as well as on the role of emotions in institution-building projects.

Authors

• Andreea Gorbatai, University of California-Berkeley

• Cyrus Dioun, University of California-Berkeley