Description
Book Synopsis* Concise introduction to the sociology of the market for upper-level undergraduates. * Covers relevant debates on market forms, social theories and critiques of markets, market failure, aspects of market behaviour, market ideologies, and the 'marketisation' of other sectors of social and public life.
Trade Review"Aldridge writes with remarkable clairty and insight, surveying the rise of sociological ideas on marketisation, charting the political history of markets and analysing various responses across the social sciences ... [His] work is certainly likely to be widely read by students in economic sociology, political economy and social theory."
Professor Anthony Elliot, Department of Sociology, Kent University.
‘Clearly written and very readable, Aldridge’s surveys a range of debates on the rise of the market, its advocates and critics, successes and failures, market ideologies and social values, globalization and the "marketization" of public life. The discussion is admirable in being both even-handed and critically sharp. Concepts and arguments are always clearly explained, and theoretical accounts are brought to life with numerous relevant examples.’ – Dr Fran Tonkiss, Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science.
‘Alan Aldridge has written a thoughtful book on the market and how it structures social activity. Amongst other things, his work rescues Adam Smith for Sociology and delinks him from those cruder rational choice theorists who have hijacked this complex thinker. The book will prove a useful teaching aid for any course examining the nature of markets and theories about them. Between this and his book on consumption, Aldridge is proving to be an insightful commentator on the issues of our time.’ – Professor Gerard Hanlon, The Management Centre, University of Leicester.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.
Introduction..
1. The rise of the market.
Elements of market society.
The invisible hand: social co-ordination without a co-ordinator.
Freedom, liberalism and the market.
Christian, civic republican and Marxian responses.
The market as utopia and dystopia.
The expansion of the market..
2. Capitalism and the free market: success and failure.
Market populism.
The efficient market.
Market fundamentalism.
Public choice theory.
Rational choice and instrumental rationality.
Market failure.
Denying market failure: in defence of monopoly.
Market-based solutions: protecting the environment.
Is and ought: the market as ideology..
3. The social reality of markets.
The problem of social order.
A question of trust.
Embeddedness, trust - and fraud.
Abandoned markets, abandoned consumers.
Human beings as rational actors.
Freedom and autonomy.
Money and monies.
Primitive and modern economies.
The 'problem' of culture..
4. Colonization, compromise and resistance.
Beck's critique of globalism.
The globalization of nothing? Market socialism.
The Third Way.
In defence of practices Promotional culture: the case of universities.
The market experience.
References.
Index.
