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SUMMARY:Towards A Social Ontology of Market Systems - Dave Elder-Vass (Uni
 versity of Essex)
DTSTART:20120130T200000Z
DTEND:20120130T220000Z
UID:TALK36106@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Cambridge Social Ontology Group
DESCRIPTION:Academic analyses of market systems are deeply divided. While 
 economists tend to neglect the\npersonal and sociological factors that sha
 pe the behaviour of market actors\, sociologists tend\nto discount the pos
 sibility of a systematic analysis of the consequences of market interactio
 ns.\nEconomists thus end up with unrealistic models of markets\, and socio
 logists end up unable to\nexplain the economic impact of markets. This pap
 er outlines a project that aims to produce an\nanalysis of markets that is
  both sociologically realistic and capable of explaining economic\neffects
 .\nThe project will construct a realistic ontological analysis of market s
 ystems\, developed using a\ncritical realist methodology. Market systems\,
  it will argue\, are social structures that depend\nontologically upon bot
 h human individuals and a number of normative institutions. These\ninstitu
 tions tend to produce coordinated interactions between market actors\, and
  these\ninteractions underpin mechanisms that endow market systems with em
 ergent causal powers.\nDifferent types of interactions underpin different 
 market mechanisms\, including mechanisms\nlike those theorised by mainstre
 am economists\, but also others that they tend to neglect\, and\nan adequa
 te understanding of real-world markets depends on analysing these multiple
 \nmechanisms and how they interact.\nThis will be a theoretical project in
  economic sociology\, drawing on existing empirical work\nwithout conducti
 ng new empirical research. It will be focussed primarily on contemporary\n
 product markets in advanced capitalist economies\, while selected historic
 al and alternative\ncontemporary models will be considered more briefly to
  illustrate both the historical specificity\nof the dominant contemporary 
 model and the possibility of alternative types of market system.
LOCATION:Clare College\, Trinity Lane Cambridge\, CB2 1TL\, in the Latimer
  Room\, in the Old Court
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