One story sociologists and political economists tell about marketing is that it manufactures desire for things that people would not otherwise want. As Karl Marx (1980) famously explained, products get their finishing touches only in... more
One story sociologists and political economists tell about marketing is that it manufactures desire for things that people would not otherwise want. As Karl Marx (1980) famously explained, products get their finishing touches only in consumption. Marketing is an integral part of the distribution of action that defines production and consumption by orchestrating markets. As practiced in the wild marketing also concerns the build, design, pricing and placing of the thing itself. This means that markets and marketing are in it together and that people are in their products from the start. In this Introduction we outline what we mean by the ‘arts of market attachment’ using the motif of the Apple Watch before introducing how our various contributors make sense of the arts and devices of markets.
William James (1919) characterises hypotheses as either live or dead. A hypothesis is live when it is taken into account as a ‘real possibility’. We follow James’ suggestion to not attribute intrinsic properties to hypotheses, but rather... more
William James (1919) characterises hypotheses as either live or dead. A hypothesis is live when it is taken into account as a ‘real possibility’. We follow James’ suggestion to not attribute intrinsic properties to hypotheses, but rather investigate how they came into being and look at the effects they generate. Expectations of digital technologies are a topic of vivid debate in the insurance industry. Before these expectations can become ‘live’, they have, in the first place, to be generated by market devices. We investigate how the reinsurance blogpost platform Open Minds functions as an ‘expectation generation device’ on the future of insurance markets. Combining Beckert’s work on the role of fictional expectations with the pragmatist turn in sociology of markets, we propose to study ‘expectation generation devices’, provoking expectations on economic markets. In our empirical analysis, we demonstrate the explicit fictional character of the Open Minds contributions, and analyse how a contained space of openness is generated to provoke expectations. We demonstrate how Open Minds can become live through circulation to other expectation generation sites in the insurance industry and beyond. We conclude by reflecting on the importance of expectation generation devices as a particular type of market devices.
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, there has been a widespread affirmation of economic ideologies that conceive the market as an autonomous sphere of human practice, holding that market principles should be applied to human action at... more
Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, there has been a widespread affirmation of economic ideologies that conceive the market as an autonomous sphere of human practice, holding that market principles should be applied to human action at large. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the ascendance of market reason has been countered by calls for reforms of financial markets and for the consideration of moral values in economic practice. This book intervenes in these debates by showing how neoliberal market practices engender new forms of religiosity, and how religiosity shapes economic actions. It reveals how religious movements and organizations have reacted to the increasing prominence of market reason in unpredictable, and sometimes counterintuitive, ways. Using a range of examples from different countries and religious traditions, the book illustrates the myriad ways in which religious and market moralities are closely imbricated in diverse global contexts.
Tabuwissen ist eine problematische Sorte von Wissen. Denn von ihm soll eigentlich nicht mehr bekannt werden, als dass man es nicht zu wissen habe. Dies stellt die Vermittlung von Tabuwissen vor eine Herausforderung. Anhand einer... more
Tabuwissen ist eine problematische Sorte von Wissen. Denn von ihm soll eigentlich nicht mehr bekannt werden, als dass man es nicht zu wissen habe. Dies stellt die Vermittlung von Tabuwissen vor eine Herausforderung. Anhand einer historischen Stadtplanreihe, die schwerpunktmäßig über sexuelle Dienstleistungen in bundesdeutschen Großstädten informierte, untersucht der Beitrag, wie die Stadtpläne mit dem Tabu umgehen, das ihr Wissen betraf. Dabei fällt als ungewöhnlichstes Element die Nutzung von Comicfiguren auf. Zwar werden auch sie genretypisch für Reiseliteratur in die Vermittlung des Was, Wo, Wann und Wie der örtlichen Optionen eingespannt. Aber die Einführung des Komischen in den Prostitutionskontext Anfang der 1970er Jahre hilft vor allem, die im Tabu angelegte Spannung zu lösen, einerseits von dem vermittelten Wissen angezogen, andererseits von ihm abgestoßen zu sein. Damit verhelfen die Stadtpläne ihren an sexuellen Dienstleistungen interessierten Benutzern nicht nur zu einem Können, sondern arbeiten zur Überwindung der Tabuschranke auch und zugleich unmerklich an ihrem Wollen und Dürfen.
