Now showing 1 - 10 of 105
  • Publication
    Att tänka sociologi: föredrag den 16/3 2012 vid Sociologidagarna i Stockholm.
    (Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, )
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  • Publication
    The Organization of Markets
    (SAGE Publications, ) ;
    Ahrne, G.
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    Brunsson, N.
    Markets have sometimes been described as vastly different from and even opposite to formal organizations. But markets and organizations share a similarity as well. Both are organized – by the use of decisionson membership, rules, monitoring, sanctions or hierarchy. Market organization creates differences among markets, and specific dynamics, which can be explained by the actions and interactions of market organizers: profiteers, ‘others’, sellers and buyers. The concept of market organization is an analytical tool, which can be used for analysing why and how markets are created, why they get their specific formand how they change.
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    Scopus© Citations 115
  • Publication
    Consumption and place: the phenomenology of relational economic geography
    (Routledge, 2024-02-20) ;
    Elias Le Grand
    This article contributes to research on geographies of consumption and relationality in economic geography by analysing the interconnection of consumption and place in practice, based on ethnographic research. This text focuses on consumption defined broadly to include a choice of clothing and lifestyle among young people in a British town characterized as ‘chavs’. The research is grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, including photo-elicitation interviews, observations and participant observations. To analyse the ways in which consumption is related to place, this text integrates conceptual frames used in economic, cultural and social geography with perspectives developed in economic sociology and anthropology. The study takes a relational approach in both theory and fieldwork. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that place and style consumption are relationally constitutive through practices of association and dissociation. We thereby show that the meanings attached to a place may derive partly from acts of consumption by those living there, but also that the relationship of meaning construction goes from consumption to the constitution of place. Our analysis presents evidence that style and the value attributed to people’s practices are co-constituted by the inhabitants, as well by other, typically external actors, such as bloggers and the media.
  • Publication
    Social interaction on craft fairs. Furthering communality, visibility, and trade.
    Although digitalisation has had an impact on the business of fairs, especially during the years of the pandemic, the Covid-19 crisis has clearly shown that social interaction is vital for small businesses, such as craft enterprises. The physical co-presence of craft objects, makers and users as well as the immediateness of personal contact play a major role at craft fairs. Fairs revolve around trade, which is furthered by the many cultural and social aspects that constitute them. We argue that social interaction in marketplaces goes beyond economic transactions and show that face-to-face interactions are essential for building trust and social order. We identify different types of social interaction at craft fairs, all of which are collaborative-fostering a sense of community, developing products and increasing their visibility-in addition to being an economic transaction. This study is based on ethnographic research on craft fairs and craft producers in the field of furniture and garment making. We conclude by arguing that the findings on craft fairs can also be generalised to other cases.
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  • Publication
    The social infrastructure of online marketplaces: Trade, work and the interplay of decided and emergent orders
    (John Wiley & Sons, 2022-06-03) ;
    Darr, Asaf
    This study is designed to remedy the tendency of existing studies to analyze online marketplaces as either sites of work or trading arenas. We argue that the theoretical notion of “social infrastructure” is particularly apt to offer a comprehensive framework that captures the unique intersection of work and trade in online marketplaces. We study the social infrastructure of an online marketplace: the institutions, conditions and forms, and the horizontal and vertical ties between actors that organize work and enable trading. The social infrastructure of online market�places deserves research attention because it represents an essential condition for economic activities. In our empirical section we focus on the online marketplace Etsy to illustrate our comprehensive theoretical framework and we identify a complex dynamic between the decided and emergent order of the online marketplace. We demonstrate that the attempt to superimpose order through the constitution of an online marketplace is challenged by sellers and buyers. We find that both dimensions, work and trade, provide actors with material and symbolic resources that inform their strategies and economic actions. The article suggests that “social infrastructure” is a concrete theoretical tool for analyzing online marketplaces that complements existing research on platforms and ecosystems.
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    Scopus© Citations 5
  • Publication
    What is Qualitative in Research
    (Springer Nature, 2021-10-28) ;
    Corte, Ugo
    In this text we respond and elaborate on the four comments addressing our original article. In that piece we define qualitative research as an “iterative process in which improved understanding to the scientifc community is achieved by making new siginifcant distinctions resulting from getting closer to the phenomenon studied.” In light of the comments, we identify three positions in relation to our contribution: (1) to not define qualitative research; (2) to work with one definition for each study or approach of “qualitative research” which is predominantly left implicit; (3) to systematically define qualitative research. This article elaborates on these positions and argues that a definition is a point of departure for researchers, including those reflecting on, or researching, the fields of qualitative and quantitative research. The proposed definition can be used both as a standard of evaluation as well as a catalyst for discussions on how to evaluate and innovate diferent styles of work.
    Scopus© Citations 7
  • Publication
    Market Fashioning
    (Springer Link, 2020-02-05) ;
    Bengtsson, Petter
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    Dobeson, Alexander
    How do markets come about? This article offers a first systematic analysis of three different ideal types of market fashioning: mutual adjustment, organization, and fields. Although aspects of these are identifiable in most empirical markets, these three ideal types provide analytic tools for students of real markets and marketplaces. After going through this comprehensive literature, it is argued that mutual adjustment, which refers to non-planned processes, is affinity with markets in which products are differentiated, for example, producer markets. Organization refers to process driven by attempts to decide for others and shows affinity with markets for standardized and homogenous products, for example, stock exchanges. Organization also accounts for the making of marketplaces. The broader notion of fields does not refer to any specific process, but accounts for the context of market fashioning and its respective power struggles.
    Scopus© Citations 6
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  • Publication
    Fashion
    (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2019-11-19) ;
    Godart, Frédéric
    As a sociological phenomenon par excellence, fashion has drawn the attention of prominent social theorists. A simple way to characterize fashion is “being first with the latest.” It is an inherently social and relational phenomenon not restricted to particular domains, although most research on fashion is concerned with dress. Fashion has been economically and socially salient since the Renaissance but its role has been amplified with the emergence of the mass market and product differentiation facilitated by mass production. Fashion is about change but not necessarily innovation, notably because of its cyclical nature – styles from the past get a new life. Fashion cannot be imposed; it emerges via a social process in which actors imitate one another and new fashions are diffused in society. Largely neglected until the mid‐1990s, in the twenty‐first century “fashion studies” have witnessed exciting developments, opening new avenues for research.