From market agencements to market agencing: an introduction

Abstract

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 Callon's 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.

Keywords:

• actor-network
• market agencement
• market agencing
• market devices
• market concerns

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the constructive comments and suggestions we received from Liz McFall and Katy Mason an earlier draft of this editorial.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.