The Market

Portada
Polity, 2005 M09 23 - 167 páginas
The Market addresses one of the most controversial answers to the question, ‘how is social order possible?’ Ever since Adam Smith conceived the idea of an ‘invisible hand’, advocates of the market have argued that social cohesion, material prosperity and political vitality are best achieved not by central control and planning but by laissez-faire – the policy of non-intervention.


In this book, Alan Aldridge guides readers through the complex interplay between analysis, description and ideology that characterizes social theorizing on the market. A distinctive feature of The Market is its emphasis on the role of culture in shaping the social reality of markets as perceived and experienced by people participating in them.


Ideologies examined include:


  • Market fundamentalism – the conviction that free markets are universally beneficial

  • Market populism – the assertion that the free market reflects the democratic will of the people

  • Economic ‘man’ – the notion that the main motive of our actions is to maximize our personal advantage

  • Globalism – the claim by neo-liberals that the global expansion of markets is irresistible, making political action irrelevant

The Market will be essential reading for students and researchers interested in the sociology of economic life, economic sociology and political economy.

Dentro del libro

Contenido

The Expansion of the Market
37
Public Choice Theory
56
Market Failure
66
In Defence of Monopoly
72
The Market as Ideology
78
The Social Reality of Markets
81
Colonization Compromise and Resistance
129
References
158
Index
165
Derechos de autor

Otras ediciones - Ver todas

Términos y frases comunes

Acerca del autor (2005)

Alan Aldridge is Reader in the Sociology of Culture at the University of Nottingham.

Información bibliográfica