On the Possibility of Organ Markets and the Performativity of Economics

Callon's (1998) ‘performativity thesis’ encourages us to consider how the boundaries of the economy are negotiated. This paper explores one such discussion: the contributions of economics to the debates over the introduction of markets for transplant organs. The paper pays particular attention to the normative aspects of economic valuation. It examines the philosophical antecedents of economic contributions to the debate, notes the rhetorical and linguistic power of economic calculation and then focuses on three distinct sets of calculations concerning the value of a transplant kidney: a contingent valuation calculation, a risk-premia based calculation, and a cost-efficiency simulation. In each case, it shows that economic facts, once created, may travel freely through normative debates and claim moral force. The technical process of economic modelling is therefore seen to be a crucial aspect of the economisation of this area, and of economic performativity more generally.     

Willingness to pay: how stable are the estimates?

The purpose of this paper is to examine the stability of WTP estimates when discrete choice models are applied in cultural valuation studies. This valuation technique has recently emerged and is expected to be more widely applied in cultural economics. However, little is known about whether or not WTP estimates that are derived using different functional forms and structures in the same valuation study are stable enough to be within an acceptable range. This paper tries to examine the stability of estimated WTP values when uncertainty remains in the selection of best choice models. A more careful selection of choice models might be needed to improve the valuation reliability.     

Valuing the Benefits of Cleaning Lincoln Cathedral

This paper summarises a contingent valuation study of willingness to pay forcleaning Lincoln Cathedral. A randomsample of the inhabitants of the city of Lincoln and the surrounding area wasquestioned as to their willingness topay for a change in the frequency of a hypothetical cleaning cycle from 40years to 10 years. This change wasillustrated by photographs which showed the same aspects of the Cathedralhalf-way through the two cleaning cycles.Individuals were also asked questions regarding their attitudes towards airpollution in general and its impact on theCathedral in particular. It was found that household willingness to pay isbest predicted by disposable income anda variable indicating distance from the site. Estimates of mean willingnessto pay range from £ 15 to £ 23 perhousehold per annum for those living Lincolnshire. Aggregating these valuesover the number of households inLincolnshire suggests that the annual damage inflicted by air pollution on theappearance of the building so far assoiling is concerned is valued between £ 0.4 m and £ 0.6 m.Different solutions to the problem of starting point biaswere explored and are shown to yield similar estimates of willingness to pay.     

Some modest proposals

Conclusions The foregoing proposals are examples of inexpensive projects in science and technology in the developing countries; they are feasible even in a time of shrinking budgets. Although they are based on actually perceived needs, none of them is a certainty. They are no more than efforts to open the path of exploration, put forward with the intention of arousing the imagination and will of scientists and officials, governmental and academic.We still know little about the institutional workings of science. There is no body of systematically studied experience available to us in such a domain as that discussed above. It is mainly through interest, enthusiasm, and above all a dogged perseverance and incessant readiness to try new things that we can make progress towards the goal.     

Making news of value: exploiting dissonances in economic journalism

This article explores the multiple modes of valuation that pervade newsmaking in economic journalism. It does so by exploring the different ways in which journalists at Valor Econômico, the leading economic newspaper in Brazil, compete and cooperate in the production of news. Valor is a paradigmatic case for discussing valuation practices in newsmaking since its institutional promise is to produce news of value. How, if at all, do Valor journalists embrace the promise of producing news that generates value? Elaborating on Stark’s (2009. The sense of dissonance. Accounts of worth in economic life. Princeton University Press) idea of dissonance, it is contended that different orders of worth collide and cooperate within Valor newsroom. Moreover, journalists engage in a variety of valuation practices through which these orders of worth are shaped, defined, and refined, reflecting different understandings of economy and society, and different conceptions of what journalism is good for. I argue that Valor’s direction intentionally fosters a plural space of value dissonance in order to improve the quality of news reporting. I emphasise, however, that these dissonances are only productive against a larger background of consonance about what actually there is to disagree about. The article is based on a seven-month ethnography of Valor’s newsroom in São Paulo between 2013 and 2015.     

How are we now? Real-time mood-monitoring as valuation

In a digital society, we are frequently invited to communicate our present affective state via interfaces. These include smart-phone apps which allow users to track their mood in ‘real-time’, plus touchpads in organisations and public spaces which seek rapid feedback on whether an experience is positive or negative. In contrast to the use of surveys as tools of valuation, these technologies seek to capture experience in ‘real-time’, which can then be viewed and evaluated critically at a later time. Based on study of a number of mood-monitoring technologies, this paper highlights some of the ways in which they challenge conventional accounts of (e)valuation. In particular, rather than inviting individuals to represent their feelings towards the past numerically, they invite them to make uncritical expressions of positive or negative mood in the present. The central question of value is no longer how much is something valued, but whether or not it is valued. Quantitative and calculated analysis of positive and negative emotions occurs subsequently.     

Representations of Precarity in Italy

This contribution is focused on collective and individual stories of precarity in Italy. At the present time, when work and the imaginaries socially constructed around it are more and more individualised and fragmented, imaginaries and collective references – whether they be social movements, trade unions or professional groups – have given way to ever more particularistic and singular experiences, which hinder the construction of a coherent identity for workers. In this scenario the question to be asked is then: how is it possible to elaborate a new collective imaginary of precarity and reclaim new rights? After a focus on the phenomenon of precarity in Italy, this contribution move to consider the activities of the network of San Precario, a cultural phenomenon that managed to develop new kinds of social claims based on bottom-up and horizontal practices. It is then discussed that the current return to an almost exclusively individual approach to the question of precarity, which forces subjects to bear the management of their professional life trajectories. Finally, an analysis of social movements' recent efforts of self-organisation and some reflections on the possible role of social sciences in elaborating tools for planning a renewed welfare system are offered.     

Culture and Commerce

The cost aspects of supplying cultural goods and services have raised many basic questions concerning the economic activity of cultural institutions. There is more or less a consensus that the same criteria that apply to the cost aspects of any business also apply to cultural institutions. The nature of the products supplied and the stress on revenues earned are different. A key question to be asked by each society is how to balance the product mix offered by its cultural institutions taking into consideration both the societal valuation of the public goods provided and the earning potential of the institution. This essay examines some of the questions that occur at this intersection of culture and commerce.     

Using contingent valuation and cost-benefit analysis to design a policy for restoring cultural heritage

Historical heritage is proving an ideal field to apply contingent valuation for estimating individual as well as collective preferences as goods tend to be non-market and publicly owned. Yet despite this, findings are seldom used to draw up cultural policies or assess cultural heritage related projects. The current paper thus posits an approach which merges contingent valuation and cost-benefit analysis to design a cultural policy aimed at restoring the urban cultural heritage of the city of Valdivia (Chile). Contingent valuation is used to estimate the expected benefits from heritage for both local residents and tourists visiting Valdivia. We then apply cost-benefit analysis to the findings to evaluate a project to restore the historical ensemble through a non-profit foundation. The originality of the proposal lies in its merging the two approaches and may prove appealing to developing countries in which much of the heritage has been neglected and left to deteriorate, and where few or no resources have been devoted and a lack of effective institutional schemes to address the situation is evident.     

Valuing museums as economic engines: Willingness to pay or discounting of cash-flows?

GLobal Art MUseums as Economic Re-activators (GLAMUR) infrastructures are characterized by global media visibility and sheer presence in the communications environment; outstanding architecture by a superstar architect; big blockbuster exhibitions and a large number of visitors; being magnets for tourists; requiring large capital costs (initial construction costs plus ongoing investments) and large operating budgets; expensive advertising and commercialisation strategies; a huge operative risk; and a hope for substantial impact on the local economy. The economic value of cultural assets is defined as the extent to which they generate benefits for society. The aim of this article is to shed light on the valuation of GLAMUR infrastructures and why, and then to valuate the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (GMB). In fact, the author of this paper argues that economic valuation through an estimate of the Willingness to Pay (WTP) (e.g. contingent valuation), is clearly an insufficient method for valuating a GLAMUR. One possible accurate method could be to calculate the Discounting of Cash-flows (DCF), followed by the discounting of the WTP estimates.     

Organizational trials of valuation: insights from the work of leaning the patient distribution process at a children’s hospital

Management devices from industrial sectors are proliferating in the public sector, a trend now being accused of undermining the proper values of public organizations. A prominent example of such a management device is lean management, which is a set of principles and tools employed by contemporary management consultants to eliminate waste and promote value – often for the sake of efficiency. While lean management has been particularly welcomed in the healthcare sector, healthcare professionals are increasingly resisting attempts at leaning their work processes. Applying the notion of trials of valuation, this study empirically unfolds the conflicts arising when lean management is used to reorganize the task of distributing patients to beds in a children’s hospital. Following the turn to value and the pragmatic tenet of studying values as the outcome of work, this paper suggests that the effects of a management device on the values of an organization can fruitfully be investigated for its ability to organize. Further, the paper contributes to the field of valuation studies with a heuristic to undertake such an investigation, directing attention towards the object of valuation, the temporal and spatial dimensions of the valuation situation, and the knowledge used to inform that valuation.     

Mind the (tax) gap: an ethnography of a number

This article looks carefully at the making of the tax gap as a calculative practice at the Swedish Tax Agency. It points to the challenges with assessing tax gap numbers and reveals examples of its careless usage by various stakeholders in Swedish society in order to impact the discourse on tax compliance. Based on an ethnographic study of documents, it is an example of a number that performs a dual function: on the one hand mobilizing people’s morals and subsequent commitments and on the other hand measuring such commitments. On a more general level, the tax gap is an example of how a number that describes a complicated reality is calculated with many caveats attached to it, yet used with certainty in society. I thus challenge the metaphor of the ubiquitous ‘black box’. The Swedish tax gap number is a calculated device and can be unpacked as a specific number. But if we think about what a tax gap ought to contain, we have to think outside the box and beyond: what was not included in the published tax gap number and why there was no room for it.     

Contingent Valuation of a Cultural Public Good and Policy Design: The Case of ``Napoli Musei Aperti'

The aim of the paper is twofold: to report on theapplication of a contingent valuation survey todetermine the value to the Naples population ofmaintaining ``Napoli Musei Aperti', a cultural publicgood provided by the city of Naples, and to exploresome alternative schemes of cultural policy. The paperis divided in two parts. The first presents someresults of the contingent valuation study. The seconddiscusses the use of the contingent valuation as apolicy instrument in the public cultural sector.     

Contingent Valuation and Semiparametric Methods: A Case Study of the National Museum of Sculpture in Valladolid, Spain

Research on cultural economics is very interested in the economic valuation of non-market goods, particularly in the field ofcultural heritage where contingent valuation techniques are currently being used with both parametric and non-parametric statistical methods to estimate the willingness to pay for cultural goods. In the literature analysed, the number of studies using semiparametric methods, however, is very limited. Our analysis is intended to help fill this gap by offering a parametric, non-parametric and semiparametric economic valuation of the National Museum of Sculpture (Museo Nacional de Escultura), located in Valladolid,Spain. In addition, we also gain insight on a controversial issue affecting most European museums, particularly those located in Latin countries: the role voluntary donations might play in the funding of public museums.     

Distribution and denomination in Papua New Guinea: a field method and its results

ABSTRACT

In highland Papua New Guinea wealth distribution after a windfall is typically concealed by the donor. This trend was made easier by the introduction of state-issued currency, such that wealth reckoning and especially distribution preferences are often shrouded in mystery. The researcher set out to learn how denomination structures those money transfers by employing a semi-structured interview method centered around hypothetical distributions based on everyday encounters. Across four tailored ‘scenarios,’ fifteen Papua New Guinean participants dwelt on who to give money to, why, and under what conditions. Observations are made about the driving forces in distribution practices, the pecuniary conception of certain relationships’ importance, and relationships that turn on local conceptions of how to capitalize on the way money operates, thus demonstrating the utility of a culturally sensitive quantitative methodology.     

MAKING AND MEASURING VALUE

This paper explores the use of three different forms of valuation and measurement by or on behalf of brands and branded organizations: financial brand valuation; brand equity measurement; and internal social or environmental evaluations. These systems, it is argued, are sites at which possible relationships between economic and other values are explored, and at which understandings of what is valuable emerge in tandem with the means for acknowledging and measuring it. By tracing the contexts and workings of these systems the paper shows how they allow aspects of the social world, including relationships and affects, to be partially absorbed into the brand as values. We argue that in an environment in which ‘value’ is imagined to be diffuse but omnipresent, the proliferation of valuation systems evidences both a requirement for new forms of measurement (capable of capturing multiple forms of value) and a search for novel ways of linking measurement and valuation. The paper concludes with an exploration of how these new ways of linking measurement and valuation may allow economic agency to be recognized and distributed.     

Mobile consumers and the retail industry: the resistible advent of a new marketing scene

ABSTRACT

Over the last ten years, marketing professionals have invested in various devices aimed at digitalizing the point of sale. Mobile phones, and the connection they open between the digital and physical worlds, are likely to profoundly renew the way organizations build the representations of consumers upon which they operate. This article aims to describe the new, mobile-based market infrastructure that is currently being implemented; the figures of the consumer it builds on and renews for marketing purposes; and the opportunities it offers to create a new marketing scene. We address this question by focusing on the world of physical retail. We show that online commerce websites and http cookies have enabled a connection between three traditionally separate figures of the consumer and associated marketing scenes: the consumer as an audience, as a shopping cart, or as a (loyalty) card. The smartphone carries the promise of pursuing this movement into store aisles. We show, however, that the domestication of physical geography to cultivate mobile consumers is particularly difficult, and so far based on a series of disparate attempts and experiments.     

MULTIPLICITY JUSTIFIES CORPORATE STRATEGY

This study conducts an analysis of the relationship between strategic theory, industry- or market-wide practices, valuation metrics, and justification rhetoric in performing strategic practice. In doing this, we refer to Michel Callon on the performativity of economics and Boltanski and Thévenot on the justification of strategic action. The paper introduces an analytical framework for studying the corporate strategy pragmatics of a forest industry company – Stora Enso – over the 1990–2008 period. The authors argue that Stora Enso's corporate strategy is justified by and represents the outcome of multiple performances that coexist and interact with each other. These multiple performances, ranging from general strategic management conceptual theories to industry-wide practices and valuation metrics, may lead to conflict when creating successful businesses.     

Valuing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Over recent years the Canadian government has struggled to determine how muchmoney should be spent on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), itspublic service broadcaster. At the same time, regulators and CBC managementhave struggled with what types of programming services it should provide.Traditionally, the citizen's role in public broadcasting decision making hasbeen limited to an occasional submission at a hearing or a response to apublic opinion survey. However, willingness-to-pay stated preference choiceexperiments could be an effective, low cost means of obtaining more detailedcitizen's input. Here, we report findings from a national survey of Canadianhouseholds in which contingent valuation and choice experiment data are usedto estimate use and non-use values of the various programming servicesprovided by the CBC. The results are used to address policy and programmingissues facing the organization.     

ART AS WORK

This paper uses empirical work on a piece of performance art to think through the relation between ‘work’ and ‘art’, and by implication, ‘culture’ and ‘economy’. Beginning with the idea that the intelligibility of both is produced through similar forms of rule following and rule breaking, I suggest that this throws into question the empirical and historical novelty of the idea of the creative worker. As institutionalists have argued, the work of art is produced through its relation to various organizations, just as work organizations rely on creative rule bending and elaboration. Examples of contemporary art are enrolled in the argument along the way in order to suggest that we can find many insights into the nature of work, culture and economy in comparing the practices of artists with the practices of workers.