Theories of Markets (with applications to environmental markets) Graduate Seminar - ENVS 193/293 GS Time: Thursdays, 2-5pm Place: Bren Hall, Floor 4L, Rm 4316 Spring 2011 Prof. Simone Pulver Environmental Studies Bren Hall, Rm 4001 Office hours: Wednesdays, 2-4pm Pulver@es.ucsb.edu Course Overview The study of markets is traditionally seen as the domain of economics. It was not until the late 1980s that other social sciences, such as political science, sociology, and anthropology, returned their attention to the study of economic behavior. Scholars from such disciplines offer theories of markets that challenge the atomistic, rational-actor models that dominate economic theory. They emphasize the social networks, national institutions, and cultural meanings in which market action is embedded. This course uses a social science lens to examine the dynamics of markets and market behavior. We survey the three dominant social science approaches to markets: network, institutional, and cultural. We also apply these theoretical perspectives and attendant analytic tools to the study of newly emerging environmental markets, including markets in carbon, air pollutants, wetlands, and other ecosystem services. Course Requirements: Participation (30% of grade) Active, effective contribution to seminar discussions is the most important requirement of participation in the course. The basis of active, effective contribution is coming to class having struggled with the readings enough to understand the arguments that the authors are making and to have given though to what about those arguments seems useful, what seems wrong, and what is unclear. Active, effective contribution to seminar discussions also means attentive listening to the comments of others. Weekly critical reading commentaries (20% of grade) In order to make the most of limited class time, it is valuable to start out each class with some ideas of what the members of the class found most interesting, perplexing or otherwise most worth discussion. To that end, you will be asked to submit critical reading commentaries (circa 500 words) on the Tuesday before each Thursday seminar. These reading commentaries should be analytical, not descriptive. In other words, they should critically engage the readings rather than summarizing them. 1
Seminar paper (50% of grade) A final research paper is due at the end of the semester. The paper, in the range of 20-25 pages, may take several forms: use the course concepts/readings to critically analyze an emerging environmental market; critically engage a cluster of course readings or themes; link course themes to a student s broader research project; a grant application or research proposal that has been substantially shaped by engagement with course readings and themes. Final papers are due on June 10 at 4pm in my faculty mailbox in Bren Hall, Environmental Studies Program office. One-page abstracts are due in class on April 21. A first draft of the seminar paper is due on May 17 at 4pm, via email to Prof Pulver and other members of the class. We will dedicate the May 19 seminar to discussion of student papers. The particular format of the discussion will depend on class size. Required readings All readings are available via the course Gauchospace web page. Week 1 (March 31): Introduction Theories of markets Garcia-Parpet, M.F. (2007) The Social Construction of a Perfect Market. In Do Economists Make Markets, D. MacKenzie, F. Muniesa, and L. Sui, eds. Princeton, Princeton University Press. Week 2 (April 7): The rise of the self-regulating market and of environmental markets Block, F. (2001) Introduction to The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi in The Great Transformation, K. Polanyi. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Selections Keohane, N. and S. Olmstead (2007) Market-based Instruments in Practice in Markets and the Environment. Washington, DC: Island Press. Week 3 (April 14): Networks (I) Granovetter, M. (1985) Economic Action and Social Structure: The problem of embeddedness American Journal of Sociology 91:481-510. Powell, W. (1990) Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network forms of organization Research in Organizational Behavior 12:295-336. 2
Uzzi, B. (1996) The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The network effect American Sociological Review 61:674-698. Pulver, S. To Market, To Market: Building carbon markets in Brazil and India unpublished manuscript Week 4 (April 21): Networks (II) April 21: Abstract for seminar paper due in class Podolny, J. (2001) Networks as the Pipes and Prisms of the Market American Journal of Sociology 107(1):33-60. Burt, R. (2004) Structural Holes and Good Ideas American Journal of Sociology 110(2):349-99. Stark, D. and B. Vedres (2006) Social Times of Network Spaces: Network sequences and foreign investment in Hungary American Journal of Sociology 111:1367-1411. Saxenian, A.-L. (2001) Inside-Out: Regional networks and industrial adaptation in Silicon Valley and Rte 128. In The Sociology of Economic Life, M. Granovetter and R. Swedburg, eds. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Week 5 (April 28): Institutions (I) Dobbin, F. (2001) Why the Economy Reflects the Polity. In The Sociology of Economic Life, M. Granovetter and R. Swedberg, eds. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Hall, P. and D. Soskice (2001) An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism in Varieties of Capitalism: The institutional foundations of competitive advantage. P. Hall and D. Soskice, eds. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Engels, A., L. Knoll, and M. Huth (2008) Preparing for the 'Real' Market: National patterns of institutional learning and company behaviour in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) European Environment 18:276-297. 3
Week 6 (May 5): Institutions (II) Fligstein, F. (2001) The Architecture of Markets: An economic sociology of twenty-firstcentury capitalist societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chap 1-4. Knox Hayes, J. The Architecture of Carbon Markets unpublished manuscript Week 7 (May 12): Markets and Meanings (I) - Culture Fourcade, M. (forthcoming) Cents and Sensibility: Economic valuation and the nature of nature in France and America American Journal of Sociology Robertson, M. M. (2006) The Nature that Capital Can See: Science, state, and market in the commodification of ecosystem services Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 24(3):367-387. Healy, K. (2004) Sacred markets and secular ritual in the organ transplant industry. In The Sociology of the Economy, F. Dobbin (ed.) New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. Somers, M. and F. Block (2005) From Poverty to Perversity: Ideas, Markets and Institutions over 200 Years of Welfare Debate American Sociological Review 70(2):260-287. May 17, 4pm: First draft of seminar papers due via email to Prof Pulver and other members of the class. Week 8 (May 19): Peer feedback on seminar paper drafts Week 9 (May 26): Markets and Meanings (II) - Performativity Callon, M. and F. Muniesa (2005) Economic Markets as Calculative Collective Devices Organizational Studies 26:1229-1250. Buenza, D. and D. Stark (2004) Tools of the Trade: The socio-technology of arbitrage in a Wall Street trading room Industrial and Corporate Change 13:369-400. MacKenzie, D. (2009) "Making Things the Same: Gases, emission rights and the politics of carbon markets" Accounting, Organizations, and Society 34(3/4):440-455. 4
Week 10 (June 2): A Synthesis? Fligstein, F. (2001) The Architecture of Markets: An economic sociology of twenty-firstcentury capitalist societies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chap 5-10. Krippner, G. and A. Alvarez (2007) Embeddedness and the Intellectual Projects of Economic Sociology Annual Review of Sociology 33:219-240. June 9, 4pm: Final Seminar papers due in Prof Pulver s mailbox in Bren Hall Environmental Studies Program office. 5