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SOC 173 FINAL EXAM Questions
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What are some features of physical marketplaces, such as the "agora" of Ancient Athens? - ANS ✓physical marketplace: common currency and weights regulation for weights physical place for exchange How were the national markets of the 19th century created? (swedberg) - ANS ✓unification of the nation enabled the transportation of goods and communication about goods. the state played a large role in the functioning of markets, market systems need the state. states created: legal system housing market science funding infrastructure development tech development mergers and acquisitions How does physical marketplaces compare to the abstract idea of a market popularized by neoclassical economics? - ANS ✓national markets for specific goods can be digital missing key sociological underpinnings no legal system, no state, or people or social relations. presented as a certain amount of supply and demand. suggests that a market just naturally comes about. There is quite a bit of social infrastructure that needs to be laid for markets to take shape for supply and demand What is the process of singularization? - ANS ✓process by which something that was once a commodity becomes personalized and no longer as close to being an immediate commodity; reversing the process of commodification
ex. slavery, people dehumanized and traded as commodities but once they begin working they take on a specific social role they can be re-commodified at a later point What does singularization say about the process of commodification? - ANS ✓it says that commodification is not a unidirectional process; it is reversible What is the commodification thesis? - ANS ✓The lazy notion that everything in the world is becoming commodified and its an irreversible process that's destroying everything How would you argue against commodification thesis using concepts or other factual material from that week's material (3)? - ANS ✓there is non-commodified economic activity (Williams) singularization (Kopytoff) love can motivate economic activity (miller) What is a relational package (zelizer)? - ANS ✓a way of understanding economic behavior in a relational way relational refers to behavior that has an understanding of relationships incorporates the knowledge of people\s relationships and the meanings they have associated with heir relationships zelizer proposes that you can breakdown any economic behavior into a relational package unit of economic behavior where people are negotiating and understanding what they're doing, trying to make an appropriate match between all factors in the transaction Give an example of an appropriate relational package. The components of a relational package are:
- Distinctive Social Ties
- Transactions of Goods and Services
- Media for transactions
According to Vallas and Schor, what are the four major metaphors for understanding the platform economy? - ANS ✓1. entrepreneurial incubator
- platform economy as a digital cage
- platform economy as an accelerant of precarity
- platform economy/ firm as a chameleon What are each metaphors strengths and limitations? (vallas and schor) - ANS ✓1. focuses on how specific platforms are places which create entrepreneurship
- emphasis on ways in which it traps people
- focused on labor issues; no benefits or healthcare as more work is funnelled out to contracted gig work jobs instead of members of a company
- organizational perspective; platforms can shift what they're doing over time because of how digital it is True or false: the proliferation of digitized currencies and banking makes earmarking more likely/possible to occur - ANS ✓True proliferation of apps and mobile banking gives people opportunities to divide up and sort money What is earmarking? (zelizer) - ANS ✓sorting and creating new currencies or using other objects as currencies which are not normally considered currencies (like services) ex. household money: breadwinning money vs child’s allowance food stamps dirty money What are some examples of repugnance acting as a constraint on markets? - ANS ✓dwarf tossing becomes outlawed horse meat life insurance
How have people overcome repugnance to commoditize "sacred things" such as material assistance after death (which became commoditized as life insurance)? (zelizer) - ANS ✓changing cultural meanings cultural reconceptualization rationalization + going from informal to formal repugnance (roth, table 1) - ANS ✓is a market constraint; associating money with transactions demonstrates that preferences are not given or unchanging What are the main causes of human trafficking according to Limoncelli? - ANS ✓vulnerability of some kind- economic gender-based violence or discrimination lack of social safety net war and violence neoliberal policies- free markets and state intervention. Dismantling social welfare programs and privatization of public services; consequences increase economic vulnerability How can states better address the problem of human trafficking? - ANS ✓eliminate vulnerable populations so that they are not vulnerable to becoming supply neoliberalism - ANS ✓Free market; no state interference; property rights Keynesiansim - ANS ✓Government interference in market and spending; markets will eventually self destruct if the state does not intervene Fictitious Commodities - ANS ✓The concept of fictitious commodities originated in Karl Polanyi's 1944 book The Great Transformation and refers to anything treated as market commodity that is not created for the market, specifically land, labor, and money neoclassism - ANS ✓fixed preferences rational consumer
How are networks important for socialization? - ANS ✓determines search embeddedness, trust, and malfeasance in transactions Overall, Granovetter argues networks provide stronger structural basis for good behavior than hierarchy does. From DiMaggio and Louch's article on socially embedded consumer transactions, what is "search embeddedness" - ANS ✓when actors use social relationships to identify and assess the reliability of potential transaction partners to whom they have no direct or close indirect social ties What is "in-network exchange?" - ANS ✓when actors choose persons with whom they have pre-existing non-commercial ties as transaction partners What are some of the hypotheses that the authors have about social ties, trust and economic exchange? (hint: there are 4 main ones). - ANS ✓Hypothesis 1: if sellers rely on their reputation, then buyers are less likely to use their network Hypothesis 2: if more uncertainty, then more within-network exchange Hypothesis 3: Sellers are less likely than buyers to use in-network exchange Hypothesis 4: people who transact with members of their social networks are more likely to report high levels of satisfaction and less likely to report low satisfaction with the product or service they receive Why do networks provide stronger structural basis for good behavior than hierarchy does - ANS ✓● Granovetter's view of the market ○ An anonymous market sphere does not exist ○ Social networks are ubiquitous in markets ○ Firms interact with repeated buyers and sellers all of the time ○ Finding a good buyer/seller has significant search costs ● Granovetter's view of the firm ○ Hierarchy exists but may not produce strong bonds that incentivize good behavior ○ In-firm transactions may be highly politicized and may have poor information flow What is the difference between relational earmarking and mental accounting? - ANS ✓Mental accounting: the individual counterpart of relational earmarking, two distinguishable yet interdependent processes; self budgeting
Relational earmarking: Earmarking consists both of symbolic distinctions or sorting practices that mayreflect the source of the money and affects how the money is used in the future What do processes like earmarking and relational accounting imply about the nature of money and social life? - ANS ✓Earmarking is often Relational, signifying an understanding of relationships types of earmarking - ANS ✓Types of earmarking:
- Sorting identical media
- Creating new currencies
- Repurposing specific objects as currency earmarking categories - ANS ✓gift entitlement compensation According to Vallas and Schor, what types of platform work exist? - ANS ✓hierarchy of:
- Highly skilled programmers and tech workers/designers
- Those who offer their professional services online
- Offline gig workers
- Micro-taskers
- Aspirational laborers (influencers, etc) What are some of the ways in which gig economy platforms like Instacart control workers? - ANS ✓algorithmic control: algorithmic management to assign and evaluate work; regulating time and activities more stringently How might types of platforms these be organized according to spatial dispersion and skill/complexity of work? - ANS ✓labor market dynamics and demand conditions vary across the groups; pay and work conditions vary across skill (low/high) and complexity and spatial dispersion (local vs global)
If your friend John were to say "organ donation is possible because good, altruistic people do good things," how would you respond to John? What is the organizational basis of altruism? - ANS ✓Altruism is a concept of doing good things for people out of selflessness When it comes to organization, it is more than people being selfless or generous. Organizations use strategies, like cultural work and feeling rules. Organ purchasing is frowned upon in a market setting so OPOs need to perform cultural and logistical work to get people to donate. There is an infrastructure that allows organ donation to happen; it is not simply based on goodwill of others OPO strategies for organ procurement - ANS ✓Cultural work Logistical work Organizational policies for how they obtain consent The notion that organ donations are "gifts" or "the gift of life" is quite compelling. What does it mean to say that this is a particular "cultural account" of organ donation? Who are the actors that spread this viewpoint? - ANS ✓"gift of life" cultural account spread by OPOs How is organ donation actually not like a gift at all? - ANS ✓cannot frame organs as gifts because gift suggests creation of reciprocity but a burden of gratitude which cannot be fully reciprocated anthropological origins of research on gift originally in tribal, premodern societies "baggage": thinking about gifts as direct relationship between giver & recipient modern market societies: organizational intermediaries organizations mediate giving in the public sphere & are part of the system of exchange situating altruism in institutional framework: wider moral economy (i.e., are terms of exchange seen as fair, are gifts & voluntarism not taken advantage of, etc.), ongoing relationship between social organizations of human goods industry and cultural legitimacy of practices
"Gift of life" promises meanings & moral satisfaction, reciprocity with recipient, but most donations are anonymous some relational problems: deceased donors' family may not be happy with choice of recipient, may have unrealistic expectations for relationship, may not consider the person deserving of the gift of life; recipient may not want to be forever grateful irony: the success of the gift framework of donation ('gift of life,' morally worthwhile act)makes it difficult to introduce market element in donation practices There are certain proposed strategies to increase supply of organs, such as introducing monetary incentives, where money plays an "expressive" rather than "instrumental" role. What are examples - ANS ✓covering medical costs, funeral expenses What does it mean for money to play an expressive role? - ANS ✓incentive that does not present itself as an incentive reimbursement without direct payment; money as incentive without presenting it as an incentive; form(NOT 'cash at the time of sale') and amount Social networks affect economic outcomes for 3 reasons: - ANS ✓a) flow & quality of information; when info is nuanced and hard to verify, social/economic actors rely on people they trust b) important source of reward & punishment when coming from people one knows personally; praise or criticism, reputation, etc.; c) trust, i.e., that people will do the 'right' thing no matter what, even if incentives aren't there true or false- extent of disorder depends on network structure - ANS ✓True Economic life and networks - ANS ✓Economic life is full of social connections Personal ties are embedded in broader system of social connections Markets are not anonymous
how does Schelling's observation of two selves refute fixed preferences - ANS ✓preferences are constantly changing (not fixed preferences) different selves take turns governing each other (not every customer is rational) max webers formal rationality and its implication for economic models - ANS ✓rational calculation determined by rules, regulations, or laws (guided by one value, e.g., profit, fulfilling a duty, etc.) - neoclassical econ. assumption about utility maximalization is a form of formal rationality max webers substantive rationality and its implication for economic models - ANS ✓substantive rationality: choice of means to ends guided by a set of human values, considers the value of an action Substantive rationality also has a role in economic life; actual people/workers are guided by a variety of values and relational ideas according to Polanyi is market rationality the default human behavior? - ANS ✓No it is embedded in social relationships Wendel and Curtis' article on illegal drug markets takes a sociological approach to understanding the social underpinnings of drug dealing. What sociological factors are important for understanding when drug related violence occurs? - ANS ✓it is the drug type that matters factors: social organization of drug markets- i.e., corporate style with hierarchy, family businesses, freelance drug dealing (free for all) technical organization of drug markets- where they decide to buy and sell drugs Why is this sociological perspective important from a policymaking perspective?
- ANS ✓law enforcements views drug dealing violence as a result of the type of drug being dealt the dominant modality when dealing with drugs is to target those who produce more violence than others don't focus all energy on marijuana delivery drivers when violence is occurring from freelance sellers
What forms of drug dealing are most and least violent? - ANS ✓corporate is the least violent, no turf wars, getting robbed, makes sure everybody gets paid, easy to crack down on replaced by freelance drug selling and drug delivery services delivery: not much violence with drug delivery violence freelance: can be very violent because there are no enforcers enforcing which turf you're on
