Patrik Aspers

• Professor
• Chair at University of St. Gallen

This chapter deals with economic valuation. Economic value is inherently social and constituted in an interplay of social structures and valuation practices. While the study of social structures helps to understand how economic value is established and set through different social forms (such as markets, ratings, rankings and contests), the pragmat...

Cette étude aborde la question de la constitution des marchés dans les sociétés avancées. Plus précisément, cet article étudie le rôle d’un salon professionnel itinérant dans la création du marché de l’informatique temps réel, marché qui appartient au secteur états-unien de l’électronique, au milieu des années 1990. Les produits informatiques temps...

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 m...

The creative economy is together with other economic domains, such as financial economy, natural resource economy, or labor economy, an obvious case of interest to economic sociologists, and a field to which economic sociologists have made contributions. It has grown to become an important part of the economy. The academic field covering the creati...

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 th...

Zusammenfassung In Theorien des Ökonomischen wird die Frage nach der Entstehung von Märkten vergleichsweise randständig behandelt. Wie der Artikel zeigt, lassen sich die dominanten Erklärungsmuster in drei Gruppen zusammenfassen, die jeweils einem idealtypischen Leitkonzept der Marktgestaltung folgen: wechselseitige Anpassung, Organisation und sozi...

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 scientific community is achieved by making new significant distinctions resulting from getting closer to the phenomenon studied.” In light of the com...

This chapter looks at competition, asking how it comes about and how it develops, with a focus on mutual adjustment. Mutual adjustment covers the social process due to decisions that actors make for themselves and not for others. Though all actual competition involves mutual adjustment, the focus here is on how a state of competition arises as a co...

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 t...

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 econ...

In this study, we analyse the consequences of the conditions of the labour‐market contracts for working on board merchant ships. More specifically, we examine how seafarers hired on different contracts work together. Seafarers’ conditions of work differ considerably: some, mainly workers in the West, have permanent contracts with a shipping company...

What is qualitative research? If we look for a precise definition of qualitative research, and specifically for one that addresses its distinctive feature of being “qualitative,” the literature is meager. In this article we systematically search, identify and analyze a sample of 89 sources using or attempting to define the term “qualitative.” Then,...

Uncertainty is an intriguing aspect of social life. Uncertainty is epistemic, future-oriented, and implies that we can neither predict nor foresee what will happen when acting. In cases in which no institutionalized certainty about future states exists, or can be generated, judgment is needed. This article presents the forms by which uncertainty is...

Für das physische Überleben der Menschen müssen in allen Gesellschaften Güter erstellt und Leistungen erbracht werden. Sobald die Herstellung von Gütern arbeitsteilig erfolgt, bedarf es Mechanismen der Verteilung der Güter zwischen den Gesellschaftsmitgliedern.

Patrik Aspers is professor of sociology at Uppsala University (Uppsala Universitet). Maya Shmidt conducted this interview in Uppsala, Sweden, in September 2016. Aspers introduces readers to different academic paths by presenting his own experience of becoming a sociologist and comparing the structural and cultural differences between the American,...

Ontology – or, to use the older term, metaphysics – is a branch of philosophy concerned with what there is, how it is, and what forms of being there are. Though early sociologists were acquainted with philosophy, most contemporary social scientists have discussed ontology from what is best described as an extension of epistemic questions or as an e...

Fashion is a social phenomenon par excellence. A simple sociological definition of fashion is ‘being first with the latest.’ Its underlying principle is revealed in the link between the modus derivatives and the term ‘modern,’ with its original meaning of ‘now’ or ‘for today.’ Fashion revolves around imitation and diffusion, and it applies to all d...

Ontology, and in particular, the so-called ontological turn, is the topic of a recent themed issue of Social Studies of Science (Volume 43, Issue 3, 2013). Ontology, or metaphysics, is in philosophy concerned with what there is, how it is, and forms of being. But to what is the science and technology studies researcher turning when he or she talks...

This paper introduces the philosophical foundation and practical application of empirical phenomenology in social research. The approach of empirical phenomenology builds upon the phenomenology of the philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger and the sociologist Alfred Schütz, but considers how their more philosophical and theoretical insigh...

Im letzten Kapitel haben wir Märkte untersucht, die durch das Standardprinzip geordnet werden. Wir haben auch gesehen, inwiefern die im neoklassischen Marktmodell unterstellte Annahme eines homogenen Gutes in der Idee des Standardmarktes enthalten ist. Die Annahme homogener Güter bedeutet, dass die Akteure ihre Handlungen berechnen und voraussagen...

Märkte sind wohl die am wenigsten erforschte Koordinationsform – und zugleich die rätselhafteste. Das mag seltsam klingen, aber es gibt, wie schon im ersten Kapitel erwähnt, eine eindeutige Erklärung für diese Situation in der Wirtschaftswissenschaft: Da man Märkte als etwas ›Natürliches‹ und daher als Ausgangspunkt betrachtet, zieht man sie oft zu...

Erst nachdem wir geklärt haben, was ein Markt ist und wie sich Märkte historisch entwickelt haben, können wir nun auch die Prinzipien der Schaffung von Märkten erläutern. Märkte werden gemacht, was aber nicht besagt, dass das immer absichtlich geschieht. Reale Märkte werden in sozialen Prozessen eingerichtet, indem Elemente kombiniert und geschaffe...

In Kapitel 4 haben wir der Unterschied zwischen Standardmärkten und Statusmärkten erörtert. Standardmärkte sind weitverbreitet und unter anderem bei den Aktienmärkten oder den Märkten für Gold oder Rohöl zu beobachten. Auf einem Standardmarkt werden die gehandelten Produkte oder Dienstleistungen mithilfe einer Werteskala bewertet. In der Alltagsspr...

Das Ziel dieses Kapitels ist, die verschiedenen Unterscheidungen von Märkten in der Literatur zu erörtern, aber auch zu evaluieren. Mit der Marktdefinition im ersten Kapitel, der Beschreibung der Zusammenhänge zwischen Märkten und anderen ökonomischen Koordinationsformen, dem Überblick über Märkte in zeitlicher und räumlicher Hinsicht und der Analy...

Dieses Buch ist bestrebt, Märkte zu verstehen und erklären. Das ist für Leute aus der Praxis interessant und wertvoll; allerdings werden die Fragen des Buches in einer wissenschaftlichen Perspektive gestellt. Wir haben uns zwar auf Alltagsbegriffe bezogen, wie etwa ›Konsumentenmarkt‹ und › Rohstoffmarkt ‹, aber das Ziel dabei war, diese Begriffe de...

Das erste Problem für menschliche Wesen war nicht, wie sich auf einem Markt verhalten, sondern, wie überleben. Um zu überleben mussten unsere Vorfahren sammeln, jagen, Nachwuchs zeugen, Unterkünfte bauen und sich, allgemeiner, sowohl vor der Umwelt schützen als auch ihre Ressourcen zu nutzen lernen. Im Laufe der Zeit kultivierten sie die Umwelt im...

The purpose of this book is to explore new developments in the field of economic sociology. It contains cutting-edge theoretical discussions by some of the world's leading economic sociologists, with chapters on topics such as the economic convention, relational sociology, economic identity, economy and law, economic networks and institutions. The...

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 decisions on membership, rules, monitoring, sanctions or hierarchy. Market organization creates differences among markets, and specific dynamics, which...

This paper uses the work and employs the tools of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger to attempt to improve sociology. Heidegger's thinking is employed primarily to undo a paradox of sociology. Sociology focuses on the social, but starts with the assumption of essentially non-social egos that somehow generate a social world. This 'egologism' ha...

In this article, we bring together the existing sociological knowledge on fashion, and the main part of the review is of classical and recent sociological work. To further the development of this largely interdisciplinary field, we also highlight the key points of research in other disciplines. We define fashion as an unplanned process of recurrent...

This article presents the results of a poll made among the members of the editorial and advisory boards of Valuation Studies. The purpose is to overview the topic that is the remit of the new journal. The poll focused on three questions: 1. Why is the study of valuation topical? 2. What specific issues related to valuation are the most pressing one...

This study addresses the question of the constitution of markets in advanced societies. Specifically, the article studies the role of the traveling trade show in creating the real time computing market, which is part of the US electronics sector, during the mid-1990's. Real time computing products assist the transfer, storage and processing of digi...

The question "How much is it?" is often posed. We hear it when we buy something in the supermarket, but the businessman who wants to know the cost of having his bank help him to close a deal might pose the same question. "How much is it" often comes in the context of another question: "How much is it worth?" These are different questions, but they...

How do we place value on goods-and, importantly, why? Valuation and pricing are core issues in the market economy, but understanding of these concepts and their interrelation is weak. In response, The Worth of Goods takes a sociological approach to the perennial but timely question of what makes a product valuable. Structured in three parts, it fir...

From the Back Cover Our lives have gradually become dominated by markets. They are not only at the heart of capitalistic economies all over the world, but also central in public debates. This insightful book brings together existing knowledge on markets from sociology, economics and anthropology, and systematically investigates the different forms...

Starting from the problem of economic coordination, this article defines markets as a social structure for the exchange of rights in which offers are evaluated and priced, and compete with one another. It identifies temporality, the roles of buyers and sellers, the voluntary nature of trade, property rights and competition as key features distingui...

For any market to work properly, certain key elements are necessary: competition, pricing, rules, clearly defined offers, and easy access to information. Without these components, there would be chaos. Orderly Fashion examines how order is maintained in the different interconnected consumer, producer, and credit markets of the global fashion indust...

This article outlines and discusses the second road to phenomenology. It is argued that Martin Heidegger’s approach to phenomenology represents a radical break with the first, and egological, road paved by Edmund Husserl. The article shows that sociologists who have followed Husserl and Schütz, or more generally have assumed the egological approach...

For any market to work properly, certain key elements are necessary: competition, pricing, rules, clearly defined offers, and easy access to information. Without these components, there would be chaos. Orderly Fashion examines how order is maintained in the different interconnected consumer, producer, and credit markets of the global fashion indust...

The purpose of the article is to analyze upgrading by looking at the design of fashion garments. To that end, I use the theoretical concept of contextual knowledge to understand the problems faced by firms, and their staff, that want to upgrade through design. Contextual knowledge combines a general knowledge of fashion with the lifeworld that acto...

A bstract The purpose of this article is to analyze Alfred Marshall's concept of class. Marshall's concept of class is not well‐studied. His idea of class is different from what Weber and Marx have proposed. In contrast to many other economists, he has a discussion of class that is developed. It is shown that Marshall sees classes as made up of peo...

This volume examines the complex strands that make up the European tradition of dress and fashion. Europe's varied landscapes and climates have influenced ways of dressing, as have continental and regional historical movements. West Europe, while emphasizing the global importance of European dress and fashion since 1800, provides information about...

The purpose of this article is to analyze Alfred Marshall's concept of class. Marshall's concept of class is not well-studied. His idea of class is different from what Weber and Marx have proposed. In contrast to many other economists, he has a discussion of class that is developed. It is shown that Marshall sees classes as made up of people whose...

This chapter addresses the question of ontology. It is an issue on which each scientific theory explicitly or implicitly has a position, as a theory comes with ontological assumptions. I will in this text show that the ontological question, nonetheless, has been neglected. My point is not to make a philosophical argument; instead, I approach the qu...

The purpose of this theoretical article is to contribute to the analysis of knowledge and valuation in markets. In every market actors must know how to value its products. The analytical point of departure is the distinction between two ideal types of markets that are mutually xclusive, status and standard. In a status market, valuation is a functi...

The present article discusses how an ethical and environmental labelling system can be implemented in fashion garment markets. Consumers act in markets that provide them with more information than their limited cognitive capacity allows them to handle. Ethical and environmental labelling in markets characterized by change, such as the fashion garme...

The purpose of this theoretical article is to analyse the social construction of order in two connected markets in the production flow of the global garment industry. The consumer market is identified as a status market, while the production market is defined as a `standard' market. In a `status' market, order is maintained because the identities o...

The purpose of this article is to analyze social order in the economic sphere. This is done by introducing social configurations as a theoretical notion. Configurations combine social structure of interfacing roles with values. The type of configurations studied here are markets, the most central mechanisms in the economic sphere. It is claimed tha...

Für das physische Überleben der Menschen müssen in allen Gesellschaften Güter erstellt und Leistungen erbracht werden. Sobald die Herstellung von Gütern arbeitsteilig erfolgt, bedarf es Mechanismen der Verteilung der Güter zwischen den Gesellschaftsmitgliedern. Die zu beantwortende Frage lautet: Wer hat unter welchen Voraussetzungen Zugang zu welch...

Economic Sociology. The European Newsletter

The aim of this article is to present that part of Friedrich Nietzsche’s work that is of special interest to sociologists. To do this, I discuss the relationship between Nietzsche’s work and the sociology both of today and of his own time. The most important idea is that he saw reality as a social construction. The idea of social construction is re...

It is with great pleasure that I take this opportunity to write a short comment based on Charles Smith’s article, “Markets as Definitional Practices” (2007). This is also an opportunity to present and discuss how markets can be understood. Smith, as is known, has written many interesting texts (e.g., Smith 1981; 1989) that deal with markets, and th...

Zusammenfassung Ziel des vorliegenden Aufsatzes ist es, einen Beitrag zur Analyse von Wissen und Bewertung auf Märkten zu leisten. Auf jedem Markt müssen die Akteure wissen, wie die dort gehandelten Güter zu bewerten sind. Die hier vorgestellte Analyse geht von der Unterscheidung zweier Markttypen aus, nämlich Statusmarkt und Standardmarkt. Auf ein...

The purpose of this article is to analyze the relation between scientific knowledge in the form of theories and the world that such theories are about. The focus is on market theories. I argue that everyday knowledge, conceptualized using the notion of “lifeworld,” is the bedrock of scientific knowledge. I also make two distinctions, one between ty...

The contemporary economy is characterized by design and marketing as means to create brands and market niches. An aesthetic economy is made up of many aesthetic markets that are distinguished by changing products and lack of an entrenched quality order to evaluate them. Aesthetic creative work plays a central role in this type of economy. This work...

Abstract The aim of the paper is to present the economic sociology of Alfred Marshall (1842-1924). Three topics are discussed in the paper: Marshall's ideas of how preferences are generated, the theory of action, and finally the introduction of a fourth factor of production, organization. Throughout the paper Marshall's broad perspective is demonst...

A studa of markets between fashion photographers and their customers. With a preface by Karin Knorr Cetina.

Interest in contemporary cultural industries has grown in the past decade, as they take on a greater significance in our increasingly consumer-led society. Focusing on the world of fashion photography, this book presents an interdisciplinary approach in which this and other aesthetic markets, such as advertising, modelling, art, music and more, can...

The purpose of this article is to present a theoretical framework for analyzing the formation of identities. Individual and collective actors' identities are formed over time as a result of positioning and evaluation in what is called social configurations. Social configurations are characterized by order and values that guide, and are used for eva...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the social construction of order in two adjacent markets in the production flow of the global garment industry. The consumer market is identified as a status market, while the production market is defined as a ?standard? market. In a status market, order is maintained because the identities of actors on both...

Collection of Visual Studies, in Swedish, edited by Aspers, Fuehrer, Sverrisson. Other contributors Åberg, Schroeder, Andén-Papadopoulus, Wulff, Augustsson, Brodin, Edling, Etriksson, Rasmussen och Becker.

Social Forces 81.4 (2003) 1508-1510 In his book, Corporate Power: An Application of Societal Constitutionalism, David Sciulli reaches back to the approach used by Max Weber in Economy and Society and provides a sociological approach to law, economy, and civil society. By studying the U.S. corporate law the book is also a contribution to the mountin...

In this article, the theoretical notion of forms of interaction is introduced, which comprehends how the network and domain structures provide a background for interaction. This general approach is used to discuss how persons can style their identities. Today's forms of interaction enable people to hide information in interaction with other people....

Forms of interactionIn this article, the theoretical notion of forms of interaction is introduced, which comprehends how the network and domain structures provide a background for interaction. This general approach is used to discuss how persons can style their identities. Today’s forms of interaction enable people to hide information in interactio...

The aim of the paper is to present the economic sociology of Vilfredo Pareto. We argue that Pareto represents a mode of thinking that has not been used in economic sociology and barely considered in the other branches of sociology. We reject the habitual bifurcation of Pareto into "the economist" and "the sociologist." Pareto stresses the non-logic...

The aim of this study is to understand and explain what I shall call aesthetic markets. A particular market of this kind is analysed, namely the market for fashion photography in Sweden. To understand and analyze a market from a sociological perspective, I argue, one primarily needs to perceive the construction of meaning within the market. The act...