What are markets for? asks new book
Professor Philip Roscoe of the University of St Andrews Business School’s Department of Management has published a new book that asks a question most people never stop to consider: what are markets for?
Published this week by Bristol University Press, the book forms part of the press’s “What is it for?” series, which takes apart ideas that people tend to take for granted. It argues that markets do far more than connect buyers and sellers. They rest on places, things, networks, stories, and performances, and they function as both an ideology and a mode of governance that shape how people are expected to live.
Professor Roscoe, who has studied the sociology of markets throughout his career, traces their everyday workings alongside their darker histories of accumulation, and asks what should and should not be for sale. The book asks readers to consider how we might reshape markets a the face of widespread crisis.
Professor Roscoe said:
“It is fantastic when a series title makes you think really hard about something you take for granted. I have been working on the sociology of markets my whole career, but still: what are markets for?
“The easy answer is that they get us the things we want and need. It turns out, though, that markets are really for all sorts of things.”
What Are Markets For? is available now from Bristol University Press.