Franck Cochoy

A sociology of market-things: on tending the garden of choices in mass retailing

In its attempt to challenge economic explanations of market choices, the (now not so) ‘new economic sociology’ proposed to investigate the social (Granovetter, 1985), cultural (Zelizer, 1985; Abolafia, 1996) and political (Fligstein, 1996) ‘embeddedness’ of market behaviour. This research effort has been very useful in fleshing out economic exchanges, moving their investigation beyond abstract structures and stylized actors. The new economic sociology has given sociologists some robust tools and efficient theories for investigating the richness and humanity of economic activities and processes. Since it tends to reduce market realities to their human dimensions (networks, ideas and institutions), however, this perspective ends up neglecting the role of objects, technologies and other artefacts in framing markets (Chantelat, 2002). Michel Callon’s Laws of the Markets (1998) may be seen as an attempt to fill in this gap. Callon proposed as a focus, the technical and intellectual devices shaping market exchanges. To a certain degree, this programme may be presented as a fourth contribution to the new economic sociology paradigm, a contribution that insists on the ‘cognitive/technological’ embeddedness of markets. Yet this would only be accurate if Callon and his colleagues could be said to think of a market reality as being ‘embedded’ in some kind of social context! In the very same way that Bruno Latour refuses the idea of an ‘ever there’ ‘social stuff’ encompassing everybody and everything, preferring to define the word ‘social’ as an association process mixing and connecting human and non-human matters and issues (Latour, 2005), one might consider that for ‘ANT-driven’ economic sociology ‘market’ and ‘social’ realities are neither separated nor subject to the precedence of the other. Rather they are both combined and produced through ‘socio-economic’ action. In this chapter I propose, to follow along the latter perspective, to move from a sociology of marketing – ie, of how market knowledge ‘performs’ economic action (Cochoy, 1998) – to a sociology of ‘market-things’ – ie, of how commercial objects, frames and tools equip consumer cognition (Cochoy, 2004). In other words, I suggest abandoning market theories and opening our eyes to

Introduction. Les professionnels du marché : vers une sociologie du travail marchand

Le demi-siecle ecoule aura ete marque par un certain recul de la centralite du travail. Ce mouvement, qui a debute avec le glissement du travail a l’emploi, semble aujourd’hui se prolonger avec la migration des enjeux sociaux du monde productif vers l’univers de la consommation : apres plusieurs decennies d’inquietude sur le travail puis sur le chomage, l’attention se porte aujourd’hui sur des problemes directement lies a la maitrise du marche, tels la crise de la vache folle, la dissemination des OGM (organismes genetiquement modifies) ou la mondialisation des echanges. [premieres lignes]

PERFORMATIVITY, ECONOMICS AND POLITICS

Presenting the theme of performativity in a journal named the Journal of Cultural Economy makes the role performativity plays in the economy a logical place to start and the debt to Michel Callon (1998) an obvious one to acknowledge. Callon’s idea was that ‘economics does not describe an existing external ‘‘economy’’, but brings that economy into being: economics performs the economy, creating the phenomena it describes’ (MacKenzie & Millo 2003, p. 108). This idea is now recognized by many authors as one of the major contributions to economic sociology (see, e.g., Barry & Slater 2002; Holm 2007; MacKenzie & Millo 2003; MacKenzie 2004, 2007) and has been accompanied by vivid debates across the social sciences about the actual influence of economics and economists over economic practices (e.g. Miller 2000; Callon 2005, 2007; Ferraro et al. 2005; Ghoshal 2005; MacKenzie et al. 2007 and more generally over society and political processes (see, e.g., Bazerman & Malhotra 2006; Fourcade 2001, 2006).

From market agencements to market agencing: an introduction

This special issue features a collection of papers that explore the notions of “market agencements” and “market agencing,” recently introduced in market studies, and reflect on their contribution to our understanding of consumption, markets and material culture. These notions originate from the contributions of Michel Callon. They are grounded on the core notion of actor-network, which has been renewed and refined through the notion of socio-technical “agencement.” With its etymology that refers to words like “agent,” “agency” and “agencer” (i.e. disposing, in English), the notion of market agencement is a way to describe the various entities that pragmatically enact economic calculations and shape consumer behavior. Extending Callons original contribution, this special issue proposes a subtle and yet incisive shift from the notion of “market agencement” to the “agencing of markets.” The key idea is to move the emphasis to the collective and open procedures of market processes. This program is achieved with an opening contribution from Michel Callon, and various essays from Luis Araujo and Hans Kjellberg, Cédric Calvignac and Franck Cochoy, Céline Cholez and Pascale Trompette, Joe Deville, Susi Geiger and John Finch, and Alexandre Mallard. Each paper shows in its own way that “market agencing” helps us to move further away from focusing purely on “market devices” and their connotations of frozen socio-technical arrangements and stable structures and provides us with the means to better address the study of political creativity, innovation, and dissembling/reassembling of market issues and matters.

Consumers at work, or curiosity at play? Revisiting the prosumption/value cocreation debate with smartphones and two-dimensional bar codes:

As Cova and colleagues recently noted (Cova and Dalli, 2009; Cova et al., 2011), there is a growing body of literature showing that consumers are solicited not only as partners but also as active workers or “partial employees,” enrolled for their intellectual but also physical competencies, so that the vague and symmetrical scheme of “coproduction” ends up into a clear and asymmetrical model of “working consumer” (Dujarier, 2014). This article stresses the paradoxical character of this literature; on one hand, it presents coproduction as a consequence of the emergence of the gifted, competent, skilled active consumers. But, on the other hand, the same literature tends to show that consumers’ inputs are called for without them being fully aware of it, as if they were acting naively and passively. This article proposes to reflect on this paradox from the empirical case of the use of bidimensional bar codes. Based on a series of experiments in focus groups, the article shows that consumers’ work must be put “in its right place”; one should acknowledge its existence but also reassess its meaning, role, and place.

HOW TO BUILD DISPLAYS THAT SELL

Instead of looking at performativity in economics and politics, this paper proposes to explore the economic politics of performativity. More precisely, it focuses on the politics of Progressive Grocer, a trade journal which from the early 1920s thrived by promoting new ways to modernize the grocery business for a readership of small independent grocers. This journal faced a dilemma: while it had to bring some new thoughts, behavior and objects into the real world, it could achieve this goal only through paper means. Progressive Grocer shows how thoroughly such a dilemma can be overcome. This magazine does almost everything that can be done through the mediation of simple paper. Progressive Grocer implements a true politics of performativity. This politics consists of introducing a new kind of text, distinct from economic theories and managerial textbooks. Instead of just putting words into its pages in the hope that they would ultimately shape the external reality, Progressive Grocer relies on a language that mixes what is said and what it does, signs and artifacts, reports of actual practices and dreamed states of commerce.

The forgotten role of pedestrian transportation in urban life: Insights from a visual comparative archaeology (Gothenburg and Toulouse, 1875–2011):

This paper explores consumer logistics in urban settings by focusing on the evolution of pedestrian transportation. It accounts for how people carry things in the city and how this is related to the frames of the city and other means of transportation. The methodology combines archaeology, observation, and statistics, and rests on systematic coding of photographical archives. It analyses two streets, one in Gothenburg, Sweden and one in Toulouse, France, over four distinctive periods: before World War I, the wars and interwar period, the 1950s–1960s, and the present. Both dramatic and discrete changes are found, such as the simultaneous proliferation in the use of pedestrians’ bags and motorised types of transportation. The paper identifies geographical, technical, and cultural differences, while yielding surprising similarities between the two cities. The paper concludes that the neglected issue of consumer logistics need to be brought into the contemporary discourse on sustainable cities.

From fun food to fun stores

Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate how fun food products are marketed in a French chain of supermarkets. It aims to deal with the difficulty in marketing a fun food product in an environment that is not children‐friendly.Design/methodology/approach – The research rests on a case study, conducted through interviews, observations, and photographs.Findings – The paper shows that, despite the lack of consideration for children in supermarket settings, the private brand of the chain, given its control on the entire distribution system, manages to invent a kind of fun merchandising.Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory case study that would need further research in other chains and/or other countries.Practical implications – The paper shows the importance of merchandising, beyond the mere design of products. This neglected dimension could be of interest for regulators as well as professionals.Originality/value – Research on child consumption focuses more on the products, packaging or...

From “market agencements” to “vehicular agencies”: insights from the quantitative observation of consumer logistics

The authors propose a study of “vehicular agencies,” which are defined as hybrid moving entities comprising individuals and their possessions (e.g. a consumer, the bags she carries, and the clothes and other items she wears). Today, it is such assemblages that direct the course of action, rather than the people or the things they are made of. After presenting the theoretical contribution of the paper (i.e. defining vehicular agencies as short-range “actor-networks” and “market agencements”) and the quantitative observation method liable to capture these moving entities (i.e. filming and coding the material and social constituencies of the observed population) based on video records, the authors trace the logics of action that animate these vehicular agencies. They conclude in stressing the potential of this approach and topic, both for research purposes and public policy.

The Emerging Tradition of Historical Research in Marketing: History of Marketing and Marketing of History

Historical studies in marketing have existed from the outset of the discipline, however rare and disorganized. Since the early ‘80s, works of this type have grown in number thanks to a group of researchers intent on turning historical investigations in marketing into a new discipline. They seem about to succeed: since 1983, marketing historians have been gathering every two years for a conference, the fourth significantly titled: “Marketing history: The emerging discipline” [Nevett, Whitney and Hollander 1989].