Concerning urban consumption: on the construction of market agencements for retail trade

Abstract

This article investigates the modalities of integration of social, political and moral issues in urban consumption markets. Drawing on the concept of “concerning process,” it examines the specific shaping of urban market agencements at play in this context. The analysis follows the history of the reforms of the French retail implementation provisions over the past 40 years. By examining three significant episodes of this history, it highlights the importance of interweaving concerned actors in market agencements, and shaping market boundaries.

Keywords:

• economic sociology
• retail
• actor-network theory
• concerned market
• agencement
• law

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The idea of treating a range of different materials – press articles, reports, scientific papers – in one analytical perspective comes under the approach of the study of controversies, in which a variety of stakeholders are taken into account to investigate the structuring of public issues (Marres 2007). In the case of an economic issue like the present one, these materials can be considered as providing an access to the hybrid forums where the modalities of organization of market exchange are discussed (Callon, Méadel, and Rabeharisoa 2002).

2. The ‘département’ is the basic territorial unit in the French administrative and political system, close to the unit of the county in Anglo-Saxon countries.

3. The Conseil Constitutionnel is the French jurisdiction that examines the compatibility of laws with the constitution.

4. Note that this dimension recalls the idea of the ‘construction of social problem’ proposed by Gusfield (1989). However, the notion of controversy seems to refer to a larger set of concerns than social problems strictly speaking, and different processes in the construction of the public debates.