Asaf Darr
University of Haifa, Sociology And Anthropology, Faculty Member
- I'm a sociologist of work and occupation/I study markets from the viewpoint of salespeopleedit
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The social foundations of the platform economy stand at the forefront of academic research in economic sociology, communication, and organization studies. Can a study of patterns of gift-giving in online marketplaces further our... more
The social foundations of the platform economy stand at the forefront of academic research in economic sociology, communication, and organization studies. Can a study of patterns of gift-giving in online marketplaces further our understanding of the social ties and normative structures underpinning trade? This study suggests that the answer is in the affirmative. Studies of gift-giving in offline markets assert that gifting is predicated on reciprocity and social obligation, and enables the constitution and reproduction of social ties that facilitate trade. This article presents a three-pronged theoretical argument. First, it extends the argument that gifting creates a social space that is open to manipulations and interpretations. Second, it asserts that gift-giving in the online marketplace should be viewed as a particular type of “market device,” an object that guides market actors how to make sense of their socio-economic actions. Third, the article argues that gifting operates ...
... Archie B. Carroll Department of Management Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 REFERENCES Carroll, AB 1987 "In search of the moral man-ager." Business Horizons, 30: 7-25. Johnson, M. 1993 Moral... more
... Archie B. Carroll Department of Management Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 REFERENCES Carroll, AB 1987 "In search of the moral man-ager." Business Horizons, 30: 7-25. Johnson, M. 1993 Moral Imagination. ... 161/ASQ, March 2001 ...
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What conflict resolution mechanisms do democratic worker cooperatives generate and to what extent could these mechanisms be called democratic? This case study tries to address these questions by examining both conflict and conflict... more
What conflict resolution mechanisms do democratic worker cooperatives generate and to what extent could these mechanisms be called democratic? This case study tries to address these questions by examining both conflict and conflict resolution in a democratic organization, a 66-year-old taxi cooperative. The conflicts presented stem from three main sources: ethnic origin, local division of labor, and "class" affiliation. These conflicts are resolved through different processes, ranging from a joke-telling ritual to a formal tribunal composed of elected judges. Discussion centers on unique aspects of conflict resolution in a democratic worker cooperative and their implications for studies of conflict resolution in nondemocratic firms.
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Selling Technology offers a look at high-tech markets from within, through the experience of salespeople, purchasing agents, and engineers who construct markets for emergent technologies through their daily engagement in sales... more
Selling Technology offers a look at high-tech markets from within, through the experience of salespeople, purchasing agents, and engineers who construct markets for emergent technologies through their daily engagement in sales interactions. Although sales occupations comprise 12 percent of the American labor force, sales work has been a neglected area of study. Asaf Darr's ethnographic exploration of the sales process for standard and emergent technology argues that our cultural stereotypes of sales work and salespeople, shaped during the industrial era and through popular images of the Yankee peddler and the car salesman, no longer apply to the changing nature of sales in an information economy. In the high-technology settings in which cutting-edge artifacts are traded, Darr finds that sales work deviates sharply from our traditional cultural images. The educational level and technical skills of the sales force are increasing, sellers' and buyers' engineers engage in co...
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What types of social relationships and expressions of moral economy does gift giving foster in mass consumption markets? Approaching this issue through the literature on gift giving in advanced capitalist contexts and the sociology of... more
What types of social relationships and expressions of moral economy does gift giving foster in mass consumption markets? Approaching this issue through the literature on gift giving in advanced capitalist contexts and the sociology of markets, this study presents gifting as a micro-foundational element in contemporary markets. Analysis of 50 interviews and documentation of daily sales encounters in a computer chain store in Tel-Aviv, Israel, found that buyers and sellers there exchange three types of gifts (contractual, closing and post-sale gifts) ordered along a continuum according to degree of subordination to the market economy and logic. Empirical investigation of four research propositions derived from the literature reveals that marketplace gifting fosters various types of relationships, both horizontal and vertical. The study suggests that gifting helps constitute ephemeral ties during brief sales encounters through the invocation of archetypical social roles, which encapsul...
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Both the service sector and knowledge work are expanding, but while the expansion of the service sector is associated with low skills and low wages, knowledge workers are highly skilled and highly paid. However, in sales of emergent... more
Both the service sector and knowledge work are expanding, but while the expansion of the service sector is associated with low skills and low wages, knowledge workers are highly skilled and highly paid. However, in sales of emergent technologies, there is evidence of the merging of service and knowledge work. This chapter tells the tale of the technical salesperson to show that as the complexity of sales increases, their dependence on social and interactive skills also increases. The focus is on emergent technology and it addresses the following two questions: (1) What types of social skills did the technical salespeople employ in their daily work and for what purpose? (2) In what sense was there a growing interdependence of social and technical skills? The sales process required sales engineers to enhance their social skills. These included being able to: engage in intense conversation with prospective clients; gather contextual knowledge about the clients' application, which r...
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What if potential buyers don’t know about our market and its specific elements? This chapter deals with one way of tackling that problem: the organization of trade fairs. Although the central attempted activity in the marketplace is the... more
What if potential buyers don’t know about our market and its specific elements? This chapter deals with one way of tackling that problem: the organization of trade fairs. Although the central attempted activity in the marketplace is the transaction, trade fairs are mainly about presenting products to potential buyers. Based on the study of a trade fair for computer software in the USA, we discuss the reasons for organizing a trade fair, illustrate the process of trade fair organization, and describe the effects of the trade fair on the emergent market. The trade fair organization has led to several effects on the market other than increasing buyer awareness: cooperation among competitors, product innovation in buyer–seller relationships, and industrial espionage.
What are the workplace manifestations of ongoing ethno-national conflict? How do co-workers on rival sides in war-torn countries cope with these manifestations? Interviews with nurses, nursing assistants and physicians in a... more
What are the workplace manifestations of ongoing ethno-national conflict? How do co-workers on rival sides in war-torn countries cope with these manifestations? Interviews with nurses, nursing assistants and physicians in a Palestinian-Arab hospital and in a Jewish retirement home reveal how the broader ethno-national conflict in Israel penetrates the workplace. Problems arise for them when violence related to the conflict erupts outside the workplace and when patients express racist views during interactions with medical staff. This study finds that staff members respond with ‘split ascription’, a grassroots coping strategy that differentiates between a cooperative work environment and discriminatory structural elements of the employing organization. Split ascription challenges existing theories of interethnic relations in the workplace, as it combines both interactional and structural elements within a single coping strategy.
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Workplace authority in contemporary contexts is increasingly being constituted through online automatons, internet platforms whose logic is diametrically opposed to the notion of hierarchical knowledge. They govern the organization of... more
Workplace authority in contemporary contexts is increasingly being constituted through online automatons, internet platforms whose logic is diametrically opposed to the notion of hierarchical knowledge. They govern the organization of work and derive legitimacy from three principles: (1) the streaming of information into a network composed of all workers; (2) the transparency of the information and measurements they provide to workers; and (3) their automatic self-regulation, which obscures the role of management in their design. Via interviews and on-site observation in a large computer chain store, I examined how one automaton controls workers through a complex system of sales contests. To lure workers into active engagement with the automaton, management offers hefty prizes to contest winners and also strives to legitimate the automaton’s operation by presenting the contests as fair and just. Through the behavioural scripts inscribed into it, the automaton fosters belief in marke...
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Workplace authority in contemporary contexts is increasingly being constituted through online automatons, internet platforms whose logic is diametrically opposed to the notion of hierarchical knowledge. They govern the organization of... more
Workplace authority in contemporary contexts is increasingly being constituted through online automatons, internet platforms whose logic is diametrically opposed to the notion of hierarchical knowledge. They govern the organization of work and derive legitimacy from three principles: (1) the streaming of information into a network composed of all workers; (2) the transparency of the information and measurements they provide to workers; and (3) their automatic self-regulation, which obscures the role of management in their design. Via interviews and on-site observation in a large computer chain store, I examined how one automaton controls workers through a complex system of sales contests. To lure workers into active engagement with the automaton, management offers hefty prizes to contest winners and also strives to legitimate the automaton’s operation by presenting the contests as fair and just. Through the behavioural scripts inscribed into it, the automaton fosters belief in marke...
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How do market actors search for and source local knowledge in global commercial networks? We investigate the origins of local knowledge by studying the work practices of scouts in two comparative global trades: fashion modelling and... more
How do market actors search for and source local knowledge in global commercial networks? We investigate the origins of local knowledge by studying the work practices of scouts in two comparative global trades: fashion modelling and football. Based on ethnographic and interview data, we find that scouts depend upon local knowledge at both the periphery and the core of their trade networks. To source local knowledge, they engage in two key activities. The first is 'relational work', the bridging of physical distances across networks by building ties with potential exchange partners. Scouts also engage in 'recognition work' as they hone expertise to identify raw skill in remote locations and match it to shifting trends at the networks' core. This study finds that distinct forms of relational and recognition work are employed to identify and source local knowledge at the network's periphery and core. We conclude that given the centrality of sourcing local knowledge, scouts will remain central in global commerce.
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... Chris Warhurst Universitiy of Strathclyde Asaf Darr University of Haifa ... The Yishuv and then State of Israel Newly arriving East European Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the first decades of the 20th century wanted to... more
... Chris Warhurst Universitiy of Strathclyde Asaf Darr University of Haifa ... The Yishuv and then State of Israel Newly arriving East European Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants to Palestine in the first decades of the 20th century wanted to create a Jewish working-class homeland. ...
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... Archie B. Carroll Department of Management Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 REFERENCES Carroll, AB 1987 "In search of the moral man-ager." Business Horizons, 30: 7-25. Johnson, M. 1993 Moral... more
... Archie B. Carroll Department of Management Terry College of Business University of Georgia Athens, GA 30602 REFERENCES Carroll, AB 1987 "In search of the moral man-ager." Business Horizons, 30: 7-25. Johnson, M. 1993 Moral Imagination. ... 161/ASQ, March 2001 ...
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... Patricia Limerick, Jason Lum, Romi Manan, Jose Martinez, Michael Meuser, Ofelia Miramontes, Karen Moreira, Clay Morgan, Ann Morrison Piehl, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, Raquel Sancho, Allan Schnaiberg, Rachel Silvey, Jaime Smith, Ted... more
... Patricia Limerick, Jason Lum, Romi Manan, Jose Martinez, Michael Meuser, Ofelia Miramontes, Karen Moreira, Clay Morgan, Ann Morrison Piehl, Martin Sanchez-Jankowski, Raquel Sancho, Allan Schnaiberg, Rachel Silvey, Jaime Smith, Ted Smith, David Sonnenfeld, Andrew ...
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While ‘gifts’ and ‘commodities’ as theoretically distinct forms of circulation are central to economic sociology and anthropology, we argue that in practice they are often hybridized. Inspired by Bruno Latour's... more
While ‘gifts’ and ‘commodities’ as theoretically distinct forms of circulation are central to economic sociology and anthropology, we argue that in practice they are often hybridized. Inspired by Bruno Latour's work, we first describe the use in supermarkets and chain stores of one hybrid category, the mass-gift, which is neither a commodity nor a gift. Through our empirical investigation of
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Page 1. Asaf Darr and Leora Rothschild Social Capital and the Absorption of ImmigrantScientists and Engineers into Israeli Communities of ... Becker's term "human capital" reflects what Attewell sees as a positivist... more
Page 1. Asaf Darr and Leora Rothschild Social Capital and the Absorption of ImmigrantScientists and Engineers into Israeli Communities of ... Becker's term "human capital" reflects what Attewell sees as a positivist approach to the measurement of skill levels.9 Human capital, ". . . ...
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We set out to explore the consequences of a new encounter between Israeli lawyers and PR people. This encounter occurred within a pre-existing barter economy between lawyers and legal journalists, composed of embedded and direct social... more
We set out to explore the consequences of a new encounter between Israeli lawyers and PR people. This encounter occurred within a pre-existing barter economy between lawyers and legal journalists, composed of embedded and direct social ties. Using in-depth interviews and extensive archival research we analyse three strategies used by PR people to position themselves as brokers between lawyers and
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... My research there during the mid-to late 1990s was facilitated by director Glenn Porter; Jon Williams, head of the Pictorial Department; Mar-jorie McNinch, reference archivist; and CarolLockman, coordinator of the Center for the... more
... My research there during the mid-to late 1990s was facilitated by director Glenn Porter; Jon Williams, head of the Pictorial Department; Mar-jorie McNinch, reference archivist; and CarolLockman, coordinator of the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society. ...
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Page 1. Asaf Darr and Leora Rothschild Social Capital and the Absorption of ImmigrantScientists and Engineers into Israeli Communities of ... Becker's term "human capital" reflects what Attewell sees as a positivist... more
Page 1. Asaf Darr and Leora Rothschild Social Capital and the Absorption of ImmigrantScientists and Engineers into Israeli Communities of ... Becker's term "human capital" reflects what Attewell sees as a positivist approach to the measurement of skill levels.9 Human capital, ". . . ...
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We set out to explore the consequences of a new encounter between Israeli lawyers and PR people. This encounter occurred within a pre-existing barter economy between lawyers and legal journalists, composed of embedded and direct social... more
We set out to explore the consequences of a new encounter between Israeli lawyers and PR people. This encounter occurred within a pre-existing barter economy between lawyers and legal journalists, composed of embedded and direct social ties. Using in-depth interviews and extensive archival research we analyse three strategies used by PR people to position themselves as brokers between lawyers and
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While ‘gifts’ and ‘commodities’ as theoretically distinct forms of circulation are central to economic sociology and anthropology, we argue that in practice they are often hybridized. Inspired by Bruno Latour's... more
While ‘gifts’ and ‘commodities’ as theoretically distinct forms of circulation are central to economic sociology and anthropology, we argue that in practice they are often hybridized. Inspired by Bruno Latour's work, we first describe the use in supermarkets and chain stores of one hybrid category, the mass-gift, which is neither a commodity nor a gift. Through our empirical investigation of
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... Democratic Justice Regimes in Work Organizations: The Case of Israeli Taxi Cooperatives Asaf Darr and Alisa С. ... During the 1920s and 1930s many small taxi stations opened, con-troUed mainly by Ashkenazi members, that is Jewish... more
... Democratic Justice Regimes in Work Organizations: The Case of Israeli Taxi Cooperatives Asaf Darr and Alisa С. ... During the 1920s and 1930s many small taxi stations opened, con-troUed mainly by Ashkenazi members, that is Jewish worker-owners who had immigrated from ...