Why read Understanding the Culture of Markets?

Book cover of Understanding the Culture of Markets

Book description

How does culture impact economic life? Is culture like a ball and chain that actors must lug around as they pursue their material interests? Or, is culture like a tool-kit from which entrepreneurs can draw resources to aid them in their efforts? Or, is being immersed in a culture like…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Understanding the Culture of Markets as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Erwin Dekker

Author

Mainstream economic accounts of culture are prone to treat culture as a set of norms or informal institutions which constrain economic behavior: ‘don’t charge interest,’ ‘don’t sell kidneys,’ or ‘always tip at a bar’. Storr presents an alternative account of culture as the animating spirit of an economy, which he illustrates through various entrepreneurial spirits which shape the direction of an economy. This book is the perfect combination of serious anthropological theory (Geertz) and an appreciation of the market process. Culture is not that which obstructs market, but that what brings economies to life.

From Erwin's list on The best books to understand why cultural knowledge is essential to understand the economy.