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Chapter 4 - Factishing a Market

from Part I - Market Designs and Market Misfires

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2024

By
Karin Brondino-Pompeo
Edited by
Susi Geiger ,
Katy Mason ,
Neil Pollock ,
Philip Roscoe ,
Annmarie Ryan ,
Stefan Schwarzkopf  and
Pascale Trompette
Susi Geiger
Affiliation:
University College Dublin
Katy Mason
Affiliation:
Lancaster University
Neil Pollock
Affiliation:
University of Edinburgh
Philip Roscoe
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Annmarie Ryan
Affiliation:
University of Limerick
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Affiliation:
Copenhagen Business School
Pascale Trompette
Affiliation:
Université de Grenoble
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Summary

This chapter contributes to understanding market design by examining the construction, mobilization, and contestation of facts and fetishes within an ongoing design process, introducing the notion of ‘factishing’ a market. The premise is that facts and fetishes are manufactured and interconnected, shaped by different market actors, and serve different purposes. This combination empowers multiple market actors to make market design work in practice and catalyses market innovation. This conceptualization draws on the empirical case of the Brazilian cancer pill, phosphoethanolamine. This substance was originally intended to ‘cure cancer’ and became the centre of a protracted conflict involving patients, researchers, a public university, physicians, courts, the regulatory agency, and legislators, intensely covered by national media outlets, culminating in the pill’s emergence in the market as a dietary supplement.

Keywords

factishProspharmaceutical marketBrazil
Type
Chapter
Information
Market Studies
Mapping, Theorizing and Impacting Market Action
 , pp. 66 - 80
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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