From Myths to Markets: Power, Institutions, and the Reification of Imagined Histories

an article by Elizabeth Carter (The University of New Hampshire, USA) published in European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie Volume 60 Issue 2 (August 2019)

Abstract

This article posits that institutionalized mythologies can create comparative production advantages.

Myths shape collective identity, mobilize actors, and fundamentally reshape production dynamics.

Myths are institutionalized in market rules, regulations and structures, leading to the reification of the myth.

The myth functions as if it is true, not because it is true, but because it shapes the rules of production.

Yet without the initial myth, specific production incentives – and even their institutional comparative advantages – would not exist.

My theory integrates approaches from modernist historians (“imagined communities”) and economic sociologists (“imagined futures”) to explain how myths (“imagined histories”) shape contemporary market outcomes, using the example of the French wine market.

This argument contributes to the historical institutionalist approach, which focuses on the historical power dynamics between competing groups and the present-day social and market consequence of their institutionalized solutions.

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