Lecture 9- Marketization Flashcards
(16 cards)
Marketization
is the social and political process through which new markets are constructed and legitimized by mobilizing cultural, regulatory, and normative structures.
In other words, markets don’t just appear because there’s demand. They are actively shaped by firms using megamarketing—a strategic effort to win over governments, media, and the public to create favorable conditions for market acceptance
Marketization is possible because consumption has become such a central activity that largely organizes most aspects of our lives.
Megamarketing
refers to the strategic coordination of economic, political, psychological, and public relations efforts by firms to gain stakeholder support and enable market creation.
Legitimation
is the process of making a practice or institution socially, culturally, and politically acceptable within a particular context.
According to Max Weber legitimacy is a mechanism for explaining why peopl regularly and voluntarily submit to authority.
Furthermore, it solidified by network of norms and beliefs—“the legitimate order ”— that make some forms of power legitimate and some forms of power illegitimate.
Consumer Culture
it sets the rules for what and how we consume, not if we consume
Place Branding
Turning a country, a city, or a region into a commercial object.
How does marketization shape cultural traditions?
Through marketization, products like Julmust become symbolic anchors of cultural events.
Companies commercialize traditions by embedding products into holiday rituals, making them feel essential.
👉 Julmust isn’t just soda—it’s marketed and legitimated as part of the “authentic” Swedish Christmas experience.
(Touches: consumer culture, legitimation, symbolic meaning, market creation.)
Marketization of Opinions
The job of an influencer is essentially to sell an opinion: to influence and legitimize certain practice
“Trust”, having others trusting your opinion, is now a multi-billion-dollar industry
Marketization of everyday life
More domains of our lives are organized by consumption.
*A ”consumption calendar”: New Year’s Day = pizza; Valentines Day = chocolate & flowers; Friday night “mys” = chips & dip; Easter = eggs & candy…
*What do you “need” to celebrate Midsummer, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, or an average Tuesday?
Can anything become a commodity?
Marketization of the self! We treat ourselves as commodities constantly improving our value in the market through consumption practices.
Can we resist marketization?
Even if we do not consume, practicing anti-consumption, we are using consumption as a way to make a statement and build the ”self”
*We are all caught up in the logic of consumption
*Trends and counter-trends, for example Marie Kondo
Is marketization good?
Our current social system requires that we continue consuming so that ”the wheels keep turning”
*Innovation -the economy expands.
*People have jobs, both in retailing and in the sectors that produce goods for the retailing sector.
*Private citizens pay value-added tax (VAT) when they purchase products and services and companies pay taxes. This is essential for the state’s budget to be balanced.
What is a neoliberal ideology based on Milton and Joseph
Milton Friedman-
-The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.
-A company has no obligation to serve the interests of the public or society; its sole responsibility is to its share holders
Joseph Stiglitz
-Markets do not naturally account for environmental costs without intervention
-Inequality harms economic growth and social stability
Market creation
Market creation is the social process by which firms and other actors actively build new markets by shaping laws, norms, public opinion, and consumer demand.
✅ It’s not just about offering a new product—it’s about changing society so that people accept and want that product.
✅ It happens through a process of legitimation, using media, politics, and cultural narratives to make the new market seem normal, valuable, and inevitable.
example:
-10 step korean skin care
-sellpy
Market creation as a joint undertaking
Legitimization of certain market practices is a joint undertaking by companies, policymakers, media, consumers, and other stakeholders
*In terms of gambling, transforming an illegal activity once associated with criminals into luxurious leisure at high-end resorts is firstly dependent on legalizing the business. However, legitimizing a practice also involves changing the discourse of the practice
When do market loose legitimacy?
Markets lose legitimacy when the cultural narratives, social norms, or regulatory structures that support them shift — making the market seem immoral, dangerous, or socially harmful.
✅ If the dominant frames around a market (like media stories, laws, public opinion) change negatively, people stop seeing the market as normal or acceptable.
✅ Stakeholders (like governments, journalists, citizens) might reframe the market as a threat rather than a benefit.
Marginalized consumers changing the market
It means that marginalized groups (who are excluded or underserved by markets) organize themselves to demand inclusion, better choices, and more respect — and through their actions, they push companies and industries to change.
✅ They mobilize by forming communities (like online blogs, forums, social media).
✅ They use institutional logics (like the ideas of fairness, consumer rights, diversity) to challenge the market’s rules.
✅ Over time, their pressure can reshape markets by creating new products, new norms, or even new industries.
ex: Plus-sized fashion consumers (the Fatshionistas) mobilized online to demand more stylish and diverse clothing options.
