Constructing Quality: The Classification of Goods in Markets

How can we engage in a market relationship when the quality of the goods we want to acquire is unknown, invisible, or uncertain? For market exchange to be possible, purchasers and suppliers of goods must be able to assess the quality of a product in relation to other products. Only by recognizing qualities and perceiving quality differences can purchasers make non-random choices, and price differences between goods be justified. "Quality" is not a natural given, but the outcome of a social process in which products become seen as possessing certain traits, and occupying a specific position in relation to other products in the product space. While we normally take the quality of goods for granted, quality at a closer look is the outcome of a highly complex process of construction involving producers, consumers, and market intermediaries engaged in judgment, evaluation, categorization, and measurement. The authors in this volume investigate the processes through which the quality of goods is established. They also investigate how product qualities are contested and how they change over time. The empirical cases discussed cover a broad range of markets in which quality is especially difficult to assess. The cases include: halal food, funeral markets, wine, labor, school choice, financial products, antiques, and counterfeit goods. The book contributes to the sociology of markets. At the same time it connects to the larger issue of the constitution of social order through cognitive processes of classification. Contributors to this volume - Dominic Akyel, Research Fellow, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. Patrik Aspers, Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University. Jens Beckert, Professor of Sociology and Director, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. Elena Bogdanova, Postdoctoral Fellow, the Department of Sociology at Stockholm University. Sebastien Dubois, Associate Professor, Rouen Business School and Associate Researcher, the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, Sciences Po and the CNRS, Paris. Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, Research Professor, the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, a research unit of Sciences Po and the CNRS in Paris. Wendy Espeland, Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Pierre Francois, Research Professor, the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, Sciences Po and the CNRS, Paris, and Professor, the Ecole Polytechnique. Philipp Gerlach, Postdoctoral Fellow, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. Emmanuelle Marchal, Researcher, the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, Sciences Po and the CNRS, Paris. Christine Musselin, Director of the Center for the Sociology of Organizations, Sciences Po and the CNRS, Paris. Jorg Rossel, Professor of Sociology, the University of Zurich. Robin van Dalen, Sales/New Business Development, Philips. Frans van Waarden, Professor of Policy and Organization, Utrecht University, the Netherlands and a Fellow of its International Honors University College. Agnes van Zanten, Senior Research Professor, the Observatoire Sociologique du Changement (Sciences Po-CNRS). Zsuzsanna Vargha, LSE Fellow in Accounting, the London School of Economics and Political Science. Frank Wehinger, Researcher, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne.