Front cover image for The market

The market

"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."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2005
Polity, Cambridge, 2005
vi, 167 pages ; 23 cm
9780745632230, 9780745632223, 0745632238, 074563222X
59878030
The rise of the market
Capitalism and the free market: success and failure
The social reality of markets
Colonization, compromise and resistance