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

社会学关于经济市场运行的研究主要集中在企业之间如何相互关联和竞争，而忽视了消费问题。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。这个项目考察了生产者和消费者如何对市场的形成和运行做出贡献。为此，它调查了两个结果不同的单一产品市场。虽然自行车市场在19世纪90年代在法国和美国都得到了发展，但法国的市场在几十年内继续扩大。相比之下，美国市场在1900年左右崩溃--在大众汽车市场成为可能之前的20年。该项目利用存储在法国和美国的档案中的数据，探索了营销策略、消费中的阶级和种族差异以及道路系统在决定不同的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.