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The transcending power of goods: Imaginative value in the economy

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  • Beckert, Jens

Abstract

What do we value? For markets to operate and for economies to grow, producers must attract purchasers to the products they offer. In advanced capitalist economies, market saturation and decline of demand are constant threats to markets. But how do we understand why actors desire the things whose value they reveal in the purchase? In this article I distinguish between three types of value: Physical value, positional value and imaginative value. Based on Durkheim's sociology of religion, I argue that imaginative value emerges from the imaginative connections made between goods and socially rooted values, as well as the aesthetic ideals held by the purchaser. The article explores how the connection between objects and their symbolic meaning is created and maintained, and why the symbolic valuation of objects changes. By arguing that the imaginative value of goods is closely linked to social values, I suggest that consumption is not the expression of a hedonistic individualism but inherently connected to the social and moral order of society. Durkheim's sociology of religion is thus read as a sociology of valuation.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckert, Jens, 2010. "The transcending power of goods: Imaginative value in the economy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 10/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:104
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    Cited by:

    1. Hugues Jeannerat, 2013. "Staging experience, valuing authenticity: Towards a market perspective on territorial development," GRET Publications and Working Papers 05-13, GRET Group of Research in Territorial Economy, University of Neuchâtel.
    2. Beckert, Jens, 2017. "Die Historizität fiktionaler Erwartungen," MPIfG Discussion Paper 17/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    3. Deutschmann, Christoph, 2012. "Capitalism, religion, and the idea of the demonic," MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    4. Wehinger, Frank, 2014. "Falsche Werte: Nachfrage nach Modeplagiaten," MPIfG Discussion Paper 14/20, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    5. Erwin Dekker, 2015. "Two approaches to study the value of art and culture, and the emergence of a third," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 39(4), pages 309-326, November.

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