Beyond Contested Exchange: The Importance of Consumption and Communication in Market Exchange

Abstract

i Abstract Current research on efficiency wages and transaction costs utilizes models of economic behavior that require a theory of market institutions. Yet the institutional structure of market exchange appears at odds with the neoclassical theory of markets under perfect competition. Both Samuel Bowlesmerbert Gintis and David Levine recognize this as a problem for traditional economic theory. Bowles and Gintis suggest that market power is a prerequisite for the effective utilization of resources within the capitalist enterprise. Levine identifies market exchange with the need for individuals to define for themselves a distinct way of life in order to secure the recognition of others and preserve the integrity of the self. The middle ground between a theory of market power and individual personality formation lies in the inherent social relations governing market exchange. By exploring this middle ground, market exchange can be presented as a set of communicative practices through which individual needs are shaped and power is either challenged or maintained.

Exploring New Directions for Research in the Radical Political Economy of Consumption

“…Mainstream demand theories focus on the commodity object and the utility to be gained from consuming commodities. Shifting our gaze to the social relations of consumption allows for a different understanding of the process by which goods and service providers are jointly implicated in the construction of complex social meanings (Belk 1988;Pietrykowski 1995). This opens up avenues for research into the power 10.…”

Institutional entrepreneurship in building the Brazilian market of functional yogurts

“…Many authors stress that socialisation creates collective structures known as institutions or conventions through which people learn what has been cumulatively built in society for decision making (Pietrykowski, 1995;Veblen, 1899). This article makes use of these social views of economic decision making, with additional insights from the literature on institutional entrepreneurship, to examine the creation of the functional yogurts market in Brazil.…”