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Chapter 3 - Disentangling Marketization from Assetization? The Case of the Market for Social Investments

from Part I - Market Designs and Market Misfires

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2024

Susi Geiger
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Katy Mason
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Neil Pollock
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Philip Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Annmarie Ryan
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Pascale Trompette
Affiliation:
Université de Grenoble
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Summary

The concept of assetization has been recently developed to designate the social processes through which things are turned into assets. Building on the case of the market for social investment in France, this chapter proposes to untangle the two concepts of marketization and assetization. Assetization occurs when a market object is constructed in such a way that it provides a rent to its owner. However, this chapter departs from the view that describes assetization as the unintended outflow of marketization. Instead, it examines how the prospect of assetization can actually be the key driver behind the creation of new markets. It contends that such entanglements between marketization and assetization should be tracked by investigating: a) whether new markets are supported by coalitions dominated by financial investors and b) whether these markets feature capitalization agencements designed at channelling rent to such investors. It concludes by detailing the conditions needed to untangle the marketization process from the assetization one and calls for Market Studies to exert scrutiny over how numerous ‘markets for collective concerns’ end up being turned into ‘markets for investors.’

Type
Chapter
Information
Market Studies
Mapping, Theorizing and Impacting Market Action
, pp. 51 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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