When Culture Goes To Market

Author examines the Eastern Market of Washington and shows that this marketplace is an example of a social institution embedded in a particular time, place, and series of social relationships. Shepherd shows how urban public space is influenced by economic and social processes. Review in: Journal of cultural economics. 33(2009)1(.75-77).

How does culture impact economic life? Is culture like a ball and chain that actors must lug around as they pursue their material interests? Or, is culture like a tool-kit from which entrepreneurs can draw resources to aid them in their efforts? Or, is being immersed in a culture like wearing a pair of blinders? Or, is culture like wearing a pair of glasses with tinted lenses? Understanding the Culture of Markets explores how culture shapes economic activity and describes how social scientists (especially economists) should incorporate considerations of culture into their analysis. Although most social scientists recognize that culture shapes economic behavior and outcomes, the majority of economists are not very interested in culture. Understanding the Culture of Markets begins with a discussion of the reasons why economists are reluctant to incorporate culture into economic analysis. It then goes on to describe how culture shapes economic life, and critiques those few efforts by economists to discuss the relationship between culture and markets. Finally, building on the work of Max Weber, it outlines and defends an approach to understanding the culture of markets. In order to understand real world markets, economists must pay attention to how culture shapes economic activity. If culture does indeed color economic life, economists cannot really avoid culture. Instead, the choice that they face is not whether or not to incorporate culture into their analysis but whether to employ culture implicitly or explicitly. Ignoring culture may be possible but avoiding culture is impossible. Understanding the Culture of Markets will appeal to economists interested in how culture impacts economic life, in addition to economic anthropologists and economic sociologists. It should be useful in graduate and undergraduate courses in all of those fields.

Does a market economy encourage or discourage music, literature, and the visual arts? Do economic forces of supply and demand help or harm the pursuit of creativity? This book seeks to redress the current intellectual and popular balance and to encourage a more favorable attitude toward the commercialization of culture that we associate with modernity. Economist Tyler Cowen argues that the capitalist market economy is a vital but underappreciated institutional framework for supporting a plurality of co-existing artistic visions, providing a steady stream of new and satisfying creations, supporting both high and low culture, helping consumers and artists refine their tastes, and paying homage to the past by capturing, reproducing, and disseminating it. Contemporary culture, Cowen argues, is flourishing in its various manifestations, including the visual arts, literature, music, architecture, and the cinema. Successful high culture usually comes out of a healthy and prosperous popular culture. Shakespeare and Mozart were highly popular in their own time. Beethoven's later, less accessible music was made possible in part by his early popularity. Today, consumer demand ensures that archival blues recordings, a wide array of past and current symphonies, and this week's Top 40 hit sit side by side in the music megastore. High and low culture indeed complement each other. Cowen's philosophy of cultural optimism stands in opposition to the many varieties of cultural pessimism found among conservatives, neo-conservatives, the Frankfurt School, and some versions of the political correctness and multiculturalist movements, as well as historical figures, including Rousseau and Plato. He shows that even when contemporary culture is thriving, it appears degenerate, as evidenced by the widespread acceptance of pessimism. He ends by considering the reasons why cultural pessimism has such a powerful hold on intellectuals and opinion-makers.

The Time Bind is one of this decade's most influential studies of our work/family time-dilemma. For three years at a Fortune 500 company, Arlie Russell Hochschild, the best-selling author of The Second Shift, interviewed everyone from top executives to factory hands. What she found was startling news: none of these working parents was taking the company up on chances for flex-time, paternity leave, or other "family-friendly policies." Instead, they were fleeing homes invaded by the pressures of work, while the workplace seemed transformed into a strange kind of surrogate home. Hochschild paints a picture of spouses as efficiency experts, children as emotional bill-collectors, and parents who feel like helpful mentors mainly to their workmates. "An important, provocative, ground-breaking analysis" (Newsweek), The Time Bind exposes the rifts in our crunch-time world and reveals how the way we live and work isn't working anymore.

Embedded Entrepreneurship examines the importance of cultural meaning in the creation and utilization of economic value. Based on case-studies from Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, the authors demonstrate that micro-scale entrepreneurship is intertwined with prevailing conceptions, moralities and habituations in the entrepreneurs’ social milieu. More specifically, the volume argues that meaning-making is integral to economic opportunity; that economic actors’ market agency is shaped by cultural experiences; that entrepreneurs' prototypical “individualism” is socially contingent; and that cultural meanings channel economic value among economic and social domains. Addressing core questions about “embedding”, the authors suggest theoretical convergences between economic anthropology and economic sociology. Contributors include: Signe Howell, Ingrid Rudie, Leif Manger, Olaf H. Smedal, Frode F. Jacobsen, Kristianne Ervik, Anette Fagertun, Lars Gjelstad, Nils Hidle, Anja Lillegraven, Solgunn Olsen and Ingvild Solvang.

BECOME THE ENVY OF YOUR INDUSTRY WITH A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC CULTURE Winner of Marketing Book of the Year 2015 by Marketing and Sales Books For the first time, this groundbreaking guide unlocks the secrets used by Amazon, Virgin, Apple, Starbucks, and salesforce.com. It creates a guide for success based on three years of scientific study drawing insights from more than 100 businesses to identify seven key factors. When implemented together these factors have been proven to drive superior business performance. Customer culture is as fundamental to business performance as breathing is to living. It is the life force of your business. This applies no matter what your industry sector. And with the evidence-based methods in this book, you can replicate their success in your business! The Customer Culture Imperative reveals the key disciplines of customer culture that consistently predict enhanced, sustainable business results. Each one is linked to a particular strategy and drives predictable and measurable improvements in one or more business performance factors--from innovation and customer satisfaction to growth in sales and profits to higher rates of new-product success. It gives you the tools to: Inspire everyone in the company to embrace a customer-centric culture Unify efforts across units by creating a "common language" for change Collect and measure data from your efforts and benchmark your progress Make change long term so you leave a legacy of an enduring business Creating a customer-centric company takes more than making an investment in the customer service department and systems. It's about building a culture in which the customer is at the heart of all decisions made within every function and unit. What's best for the customer is what's best for business. Make that a part of the DNA of your organization, and you will lead your company to unprecedented success. Guaranteed. PRAISE FOR THE CUSTOMER CULTURE IMPERATIVE "Linden and Chris Brown have written the best book on what it takes to build a genuine customer culture in an organization. Their framework and their stories will inspire you to take the next step." -- Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University "A customer-focused culture is a powerful competitive advantage. This book will show you how to diagnose the level of a customer culture and then make the leadership moves to raise this level." -- George Day, Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor of Marketing and Co-Director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania "Creating unique customer engagements is an essential ingredient of the 'Starbucks Experience.' Crafting an authentic culture is essential to insuring that all employees consistently execute and innovate the highest quality customer experience. Linden and Chris provide a unique framework and road map to build this culture within large and small organizations." -- Arthur Rubinfeld, chief creative officer and president, Global Innovation and Evolution Fresh Retail, Starbucks "Smart phones, smart networks, and personalized apps are changing the way people live and work--giving control to an emerging class of globally connected customers that have the power to shift markets. Linden and Chris Brown’s work will help you understand what is happening and what it means to your business.” -- David Thodey, Chief Executive Officer, Telstra "Over the 40+ years of my life in business I have always known that a customer culture is the key to success. How to achieve it has been a continuous search and challenge. This book is the clearest roadmap I have read to truly achieve a customer culture and all the benefits it brings.” -- John Stanhope, Chairman, Australia Post "Some books (alas, very rare) summarise well-researched management theory, combined with current best practice, to deliver powerful and pragmatic guidelines for growing shareholder value. This is one such book. Read it. Enjoy it. It is a powerful contribution to best practice.” -- Malcolm MacDonald, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield University School of Management "Smart phones, smart networks, and personalized apps are changing the way people live and work,giving control to an emerging class of globally connected customers that have the power to shift markets. Linden and Chris Brown’s work will help you understand what is happening and what it means to your business.”--David Thodey, Chief Executive Officer, Telstra "Over the 40+ years of my life in business I have always known that a customer culture is the key to success. How to achieve it has been a continuous search and challenge. This book is the clearest roadmap I have read to truly achieve a customer culture and all the benefits it brings.”--John Stanhope, Chairman, Australia Post "Some books, alas very rare, summarise well-researched management theory, combined with current best practice, to deliver powerful and pragmatic guidelines for growing shareholder value. This is one such book. Read it. Enjoy it. It is a powerful contribution to best practice.”--Malcolm MacDonald, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield University School of Management "This easy to read book provides essential and unique guidance for driving the critical relationship between customer centricity and sustained organisational performance."-—Dr Ramzi Fayed, Executive Dean, Australian Graduate School of Leadership

Professor Reddy traces the transition from pre-capitalist to capitalist culture in the French textile industry from 1750 to 1900. Using anthropology and social history, he shows how and why the conception of the social order based on the idea of the market began to emerge, and examines the attendant political and social conflict.