The micro dynamics of participation in collective market work: The case of Community-Supported Agriculture in France

Abstract

Consumer and market researchers have studied market shaping as the outcomes of institutional struggles. By focusing on the macro dynamics, scholars have explained how markets change over time. However, they have paid less attention to understand the forces that animate people’s participation in a market and under what conditions this participation persists. To advance the literature, this paper focuses on the micro dynamics of markets. Developing insights from ethnographic research based on three years spent in a Community-Supported Agriculture, we show how personal and historical concerns shape actors’ commitments to and participation in a market. Plus, we explain how actors evaluate their participation in a market, leading to change the micro dynamics of the market. Our findings contribute to existing theorizations of market shaping and have managerial implications.