If You Use a Screen Reader

This content is available through Read Online (Free) program, which relies on page scans. Since scans are not currently available to screen readers, please contact JSTOR User Support for access. We'll provide a PDF copy for your screen reader.
Journal Article

Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions

Neil Fligstein
American Sociological Review
Vol. 61, No. 4 (Aug., 1996), pp. 656-673
DOI: 10.2307/2096398
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2096398
Page Count: 18
Were these topics helpful?

Select the topics that are inaccurate.

  • Read Online (Free)
  • Download ($14.00)
  • Subscribe ($19.50)
  • Save
  • Cite this Item
Since scans are not currently available to screen readers, please contact JSTOR User Support for access. We'll provide a PDF copy for your screen reader.
Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions
Preview not available

Abstract

I use the metaphor "markets as politics" to create a sociological view of action in markets. I develop a conceptual view of the social institutions that comprise markets, discuss a sociological model of action in which market participants try to create stable worlds and find social solutions to competition, and discuss how markets and states are intimately linked. From these foundations, I generate propositions about how politics in markets work during various stages of market development--formation, stability, and transformation. At the formation of markets, when actors in firms are trying to create a status hierarchy that enforces noncompetitive forms of competition, political action resembles social movements. In stable markets, incumbent firms defend their positions against challengers and invaders. During periods of market transformation, invaders can reintroduce more fluid social-movement-like conditions.