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Chapter 9 - The Social Life of Simulated Markets: A Market Studies Approach

from Part II - Post-Performative Approaches to Studying Markets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2024

By
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Edited by
Susi Geiger ,
Katy Mason ,
Neil Pollock ,
Philip Roscoe ,
Annmarie Ryan ,
Stefan Schwarzkopf  and
Pascale Trompette
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

Simulated markets are a fascinating paradox for Market Studies. They are markets organized around nothing. No real property rights get exchanged when markets are “only” simulated. They are unproductive in the sense that simulated markets produce no surplus for anyone. They are markets that do not actually exist. Yet, simulations of market processes play an increasingly important role in market practices as well as in wider business pedagogy. This chapter uses historical and contemporary evidence on the development and uses of market simulations in various settings – ranging from business schools to Wall Street – to test the post-performativity paradigm in Market Studies. The chapter shows that real-world market arrangements are changed not with the help of economic models, economic theories or economists themselves, but rather through business school teachers, family accountants, software tinkerers and designs that emerged completely outside the sphere of economic theory and modelling. By studying the early uses of electronic spreadsheets for market simulations, we can see that market arrangements require calculative communities rather than economists.

Keywords

Performativitysimulated marketsmarkets in the makingcalculative communities
Type
Chapter
Information
Market Studies
Mapping, Theorizing and Impacting Market Action
 , pp. 144 - 160
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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