Production and Valuation of a Market Object

• In Event: 118 - Section on Economic Sociology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 22. Valuation

Abstract

This article focuses on valuation in markets. There are two central arguments. First, market objects – that is, things or materials that have been materially and symbolically constituted and made stable – are subject to valuation in a market context. Second, the existence and functioning of markets should be understood as contingent upon not just shared meanings or the naturalization of ideas about markets, but upon the production of a market object which is knowable and desirable. Using the empirical example of the market for used clothing in Krakow, Poland, this article demonstrates that it is not already-produced things which are valued, but objects created in assemblages of human actors, infrastructures, and materials. This article presents an ecological and pragmatic approach to valuation and suggests the applicability of this approach to sociology more broadly.

Author

• Emma Pendzich Greeson, University of California- San Diego