Unsettling issues: valuing public goods and the production of matters of concern

Abstract

'Unsettling issues: valuing public goods and the production of matters of concern'What are public goods -of any kind -worth? How are they valued, and made valuable?What expertise is involved in their production? Questions over the value of public goods -a sporting championship, the arts, scientific advances or quality of life -figure prominently in our public and political discourse, as politicians and administrators struggle to manage the often competing claims of instrumental, economic reason and intangible, cultural evaluations.We must decide not only what characteristics and 'goods' to value, but how to value them, sometimes in the less than fully-realized knowledge that modes of valuation are performative

Bridging Local Constraints and Global Priorities : The Shaping of Swedish Biogas Markets

“…Products do not always enter the market as such, but can change narratives to position themselves as green and respond to matters of concern (Reijonen & Tryggestad, 2012). It is closely linked to formal valuation practices in that it creates a need for valuation and reacts to practices of valuation (Roscoe & Townley, 2016). The biogas market comprises and affects public concerns.…”

Towards a problem-oriented regional industrial policy: possibilities for public intervention in framing, valuation and market formation

“…The social value underpinning the need for 'public goods' should therefore not be taken as read (Geiger et al, 2014), but rather should be considered the result of the ordinary functioning of markets that from time to time 'triggers the emergence of matters of concern' (Callon, 2007, p. 139). 'Concerned markets' (Geiger et al, 2014;Reijonen & Tryggestad, 2012;Roscoe & Townley, 2016) emerge as market actors produce social value through often mundane valuation practices that seek to achieve both economic gains and a more just and sustainable society.…”

Market Failures and Market Framings: Can a market be transformed from the inside?

“…Roscoe and Townley (2016, p. 121) have recently criticized the ‘hegemonic discourse of economics that recasts social problems as market failures requiring appropriate interventions’. We offer an alternative view of market failures, cast in the pragmatic terms of market innovation and redevising, and draw particular attention to how these innovations unfold over time.…”