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Book Name – Indian Society (Class 12 – NCERT)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. Sociological Perspectives on Markets and the Economy.
1.1. Caste-based markets and trading networks in precolonial and colonial India
1.2. Social Organisation of Markets – Traditional Business Communities’
1.3. Colonialism and the Emergence of New Markets
2. Understanding Capitalism as a Social System
2.1. Commoditisation and Consumption
3. Globalisation Interlinking of Local, Regional, National and International Markets
3.1. Debate on Liberalisation – Market Versus State
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The Market as a Social Institution
Chapter – 4
Markets are usually thought of as places where things are bought and sold.
In everyday usage, a market can refer to a specific physical location, such as a railway station market, fruit market, or wholesale market.
Sometimes, a market refers to the gathering of people – buyers and sellers – rather than the physical place.
Example: a weekly vegetable market may occur in different places on different days.
Another sense of market refers to an area or category of trade or business, such as the market for cars or the market for readymade clothes.
A related sense refers to the demand for a particular product or service, e.g., the market for computer professionals.
All these meanings refer to a specific market, understandable from the context.
Speaking of “the market” in general includes all specific markets and the entire spectrum of economic activities and institutions.
In this broad sense, “the market” is almost equivalent to “the economy”.
While typically considered an economic institution, the market is also a social institution, comparable to institutions like caste, tribe, or family.
Sociological Perspectives on Markets and the Economy
Economics aims to understand and explain how markets work in modern capitalist economies, including price determination, effects of investments, and factors influencing saving or spending.
Sociology contributes to the study of markets by examining aspects beyond economics, particularly the social context.
Modern economics originated in eighteenth century England, initially called political economy.
Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, argued that the market economy consists of individual exchanges or transactions that unintentionally create a functioning and ordered system.
Modern economics studies the economy as a separate part of society, operating according to its own laws, often ignoring the larger social or political context.
Sociologists study economic institutions and processes within the larger social framework.
Markets are seen as social institutions that are culturally constructed and often controlled or organized by specific social groups or classes.
Economies are socially ‘embedded’, connected to other institutions, social processes, and structures.
Examples illustrating this include a weekly tribal haat and traditional business communities with trading networks in colonial India.