The cultural production of commodities: Understanding the art and gaps of silent and seen design
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to shed light on the particular organizing design practices behind making items exchangeable into commodities. It is a constructive contribution to establish more critical studies of merchandizing.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included several longitudinal projects in retail chains in Scandinavia. The research was based on anthropological and participatory research methods. We introduce the term “waremaking” as a term for the work to make items exchangeable and expand on a distinction between silent and seen design (Gorb and Dumas, 1987).
Findings
Waremaking is business, but includes giving form to relations between business and society to make exchanges at all possible. We found considerable silent design work that is not commonly acknowledged in economic and social theory.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need for comparative and aggregate studies. We deconstruct the conventional categories “commodities” and “merchandizing” and a study of the contingent effects on the meaning of other constructs is needed.
Practical implications
Introducing the notion of waremaking yields important insights for organizations and managers. We offer a new framework of waremaking that crosses existing boundaries and helps construct new interfaces between designers, traders and consumers in society.
Social implications
The papers reveal merchandizing as a culturally complex and nuanced form of work and a crucial field of practice.
Originality/value
Scholars have denoted little attention to the cultural work of merchandizing. By delineating a new practice-based framework encompassing both ordinary and extraordinary work, we can address the cultural production of commodities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank, for good comments, Yvon Pesqueux and Rémi Jardat. An earlier different version of this paper was first presented at EURAM conference in Istanbul, June 2013, and it was reworked and rewritten for the current issue of SBR. Authors are listed in alphabetic order.
Citation
Brøgger, B. and Helene Jevnaker, B. (2014), "The cultural production of commodities: Understanding the art and gaps of silent and seen design", Society and Business Review, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 124-138. https://doi.org/10.1108/SBR-11-2013-0085
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited