from Part VII - Future (Im)Perfect Markets
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 November 2024
This chapter explores how Market Studies scholars can usefully direct their expertise and attention to the complex challenges thrown up by the required shift to the imaginary circular economy. We propose a framework and research agenda for the infrastructuring moves required to fundamentally shift the sociomaterial, technical, political and economic arrangements that sit below our linear economy, in order to reconfigure how our economy works. The need for greater fungibility at a local, regional, national and international scales, and for new forms of governance are seen as critical to success. However, while Market Studies scholars are well-equipped to address these challenges, we need to do more than simply deploy existing conceptual frameworks and tools, asking, what demands do circular economy concerns place upon Market Studies? We argue that theories of materiality and valuation need to be extended if not reformulated, to accommodate many of the features associated with circularity. We recommend that scholars engage more actively with understanding the infrastructures of supply and demand that compose the linear economy, the practices that sustain that demand, and the practices of repair, remanufacturing, retrofitting, upgrading, and enabling new modalities of access to goods.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.