Geographies of markets: Materials, morals and monsters in motion

Abstract

Approaching processes of capitalist market exchange from a cultural economic perspective, we identify three strands of research that are all part of a widespread ‘pragmatic turn’ in the study of economic activities: (1) the conceptualization of markets as heterogeneous arrangements of people, things and sociotechnical devices; (2) the insight that multiple frames of reference are mobilized in everyday market activities in addition to instrumental rationality; and (3) approaches that combine an interest in the performance of diversity and difference in concrete market contexts with an attention to mobility in network capitalism.