The 8th Interdiscplinary Market Studies Workshop

Theme: Nordic Noir – Exploring the Dark Sides of Markets

Since its first meeting in Sigtuna in 2010, IMSW has gathered scholars interested in the creation and operation of markets. At the heart of the workshop are empirical accounts of mundane market practices as well as market formation and change processes. Over the years, discussions at IMSW have highlighted the variability of market arrangements and outcomes, paid close attention to the metrologies and evaluative practices linked to markets, scrutinized the power in and of markets, and engaged in speculations on the possibility of better markets. While the ethos of the workshop has always been to question the benevolence and neutrality of markets, we believe that as IMSW now returns to Stockholm, the time is ripe for something a bit different. We therefore call for an even more explicit focus on the negative externalities, excesses, and ethical impotency of markets. As befits the return of IMSW to the land of Nordic noir, we invite contributions that explore the dark sides of markets.

Perhaps more than ever before, markets provoke concern. The climate crisis is intimately connected with the current economic system – and many find it easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. The growing influence of financial markets leads to the hegemony of narrow forms of valuation and the severing of many human ties. Marketized technologies pose threats to democracy through their production of both ignorance and further polarization. Digital market infrastructures work as mechanisms of surveillance but also facilitate the formation and operation of markets beyond the reach of regulatory interventions. The marketization of areas such as education and healthcare contributes to problems of unequal access, and bureaucratization makes structures inflexible to change or improvement. These and other similar developments certainly warrant the attention of the market studies community.

As IMSW turns 15, we propose, in the spirit of the gloomiest, moodiest instincts of adolescence, a side-step from constructivist market studies to "destructivist" market studies. This challenge involves new markets to study, new verbs to master, and new questions to ask. Instead of the very respectable markets usually studied by market studies scholars, we encourage the exploration of taboo markets, illegal markets, and repugnant markets. In addition to studies of imagining, designing, and maintaining markets, we would like to see inquiries into destroying, deceiving, threatening, and scheming in markets. We look forward to submissions addressing questions such as: What role do markets play in the current rather destructive time capsule? How are affects such as hate, fear, loathing, and shame provoked and used in markets? What effects do markets have when they create insiders and outsiders? How do market epistemologies help actors mobilize obscurity and opacity in society?

Markets have been lauded as mechanisms for optimal resource allocation and denounced as structures of oppression. Beyond this polemic debate, the workshop’s historical rooting in STS and ANT serves as a reminder to look beyond contestations and trace the practices (and not only the ideologies) that (in)form them. In short, the field of interdisciplinary market studies has responded by assuming a position where both “Le bon Dieu” and “The Devil” are to be found in the details. In this vein, we look forward to a workshop full of constructive discussions. While finding solutions to the problems identified may not always be within our reach, a sound introspection, reflection, and mapping of the values we guard definitely is.

For more details on the workshop theme and submission guidelines, see the call for papers.

Keynote speakers

We are delighted to welcome Professor Linsey McGoey and Professor Emeritus Alf Hornborg as keynote speakers for the workshop.

Linsey McGoey is Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. She is known as a pioneer of ignorance studies, an interdisciplinary field that explores the role of strategic ignorance in economic exchange. Her books include The Unknowers: How Strategic Ignorance Rules the World (2019, Zed) and Routledge International Handbook of Ignorance Studies (2022, co-edited with Matthias Gross).

Alf Hornborg is Professor Emeritus of Human Ecology at Lund University. His work addresses global issues of sustainability and environmental justice, most recently with regards to the social and ecological repercussions of the emergence of money. His new book Liquidate: How Money is Dissolving the World (2024, Routledge) will be out in November.

Venue and program

The workshop will be held at the Stockholm School of Economics. The program starts with a welcome reception in the evening of June 16, 2025, and ends in the late afternoon on June 18, 2025.

Organizers

Organizing committee: Riikka Murto (chair), Jessica Backsell, Mattias Hjelm, Hans Kjellberg, Kaisa Koskela-Huotari, Lily Lu, Suvi Nenonen

IMSW Board: Riikka Murto (Stockholm School of Economics), Winfred Onyas (University of Leicester), Teea Palo (University of Edinburgh), Pascale Trompette (University of Grenoble Alpes)