Doctoral Dissertation Research: Markets as Producers and Consumers - The French and U.S. Bicycle Markets, 1890-1910

关于经济市场运作的社会学研究主要集中在企业如何相互联系和竞争上，而忽略了消费问题。 关于消费的研究着眼于人们如何使用物品及其意义，但通常忽略了生产。 本项目研究生产者和消费者如何对市场的形成和运作作出贡献。 为了做到这一点，它调查了两个结果不同的单一产品市场。 19世纪90年代，法国和美国的自行车市场都得到了发展，而法国的自行车市场在几十年内持续扩张。 相比之下，美国的汽车市场在1900年左右崩溃，比大众汽车市场早了20年。 该项目利用存储在法国和美国档案中的数据，探讨了营销策略、消费中的阶级和种族差异以及道路系统在确定对比市场结果方面所发挥的作用。

Sociological work on the operation of economic markets focuses primarily on how firms relate to and compete with one another, but ignores consumption issues. Work on consumption looks at how people use objects and what they mean, but usually ignores production. This project examines how both producers and consumers contribute to the formation and operation of markets. To do so, it investigates two single-product markets that differed in their outcomes. While a bicycle market developed in both France and the United States during the 1890s, the market in France continued to expand for decades. In contrast, the market in the United States collapsed around 1900 - twenty years before a mass automobile market was possible. Using data stored in archives in France and the United States, the project explores the roles played by marketing strategies, class and ethnic differences in consumption, and road systems in determining the contrasting market outcomes.