An Economic Anthropological Exploration of Three Conflicts Over Market Value in the Contemporary U.S.

本研究探讨了当代美国的个人和群体如何衡量和概念化经济价值；也就是说，他们如何部署关于价值、效用和重要性的想法。借鉴传统理论，并使用人种学（基于访谈的）方法，它侧重于三种情况下，价值系统是在竞争：1)辩论的经济贡献的公共部门工作；2)关于企业责任的争论导致了一种新形式的“利益公司”的特许；3)试验另一种形式的区域经济一体化，被称为“慢钱”。本研究将开发一个参与者如何围绕新的评估模式建立共识的模型。它使用惯例理论——一种探索意义与习惯、习俗、惯例、技术和标准实践联系方式的框架——但将该框架扩展到关注社会领域界面上的争论时刻。这项研究的最终目标是为更精确的有针对性的评估模式提供基础，以取代目前为公共政策提供信息的单价措施。评估系统对许多领域的政策形成至关重要。诺贝尔经济学奖得主约瑟夫•斯蒂格利茨（Joseph Stiglitz）和阿马蒂亚•森（Amartya Sen）认为，新的估值体系对于我们重塑面临普遍衰退的全球经济的能力至关重要。这项任务需要系统地研究不包括在国内生产总值（gdp）等价值衡量指标中的经济贡献。通过绘制和分析关于“市场价值”及其替代品的关键争论，本研究将提供一个模型，说明在各种评估价值的框架中，什么是利害攸关的，以及评估系统何时以及如何改变。

This research addresses how individuals and groups in the contemporary U.S. measure and conceptualize economic value; that is, how they deploy ideas about worth, utility, and importance. Drawing on convention theory, and using ethnographic (interview-based) methods, it focuses on three contexts where systems of value are in contest: 1) debates over economic contributions of public sector work; 2) arguments over corporate responsibility that have resulted in the chartering of a new form of "Benefit Corporation"; and 3) an experiment with alternative forms of regional economic integration known as "Slow Money." This study will develop a model of how actors build consensus around new modes of evaluation. It uses convention theory - a framework that explores the way meaning is linked to habits, customs, routines, technologies, and standard practices - but extends that framework to focus on moments of contention at the interface of social spheres. The ultimate goal of the research is to provide grounding for more precisely targeted modes of evaluation to replace the monovalent measures that currently inform public policy. Systems of evaluation are central to policy formation across many spheres. Nobel prize-winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen have argued that new systems of valuation will be critical to our ability to reshape a global economy facing widespread downturn. This task requires systematic study of economic contributions that are not included in measures of value such as Gross Domestic Product. By mapping and analyzing critical debates over "market value" and its alternatives, this study will offer a model of what is at stake in various frameworks for assessing value and of when and how systems of evaluation can change.