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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2021
Different sociological approaches claiming a close relation to pragmatism have developed over recent decades, emphasizing situated action, the interpretive and reflexive capacities of actors, and their social capabilities. These so-called pragmatic conceptions have often been presented as an alternative to the structuralism that dominated previous decades. Without ignoring the differences between the two approaches, this article seeks to show not only that they can both be usefully applied to the same object, but also that they can be integrated into a unified theoretical framework. The argument is based on recent empirical work devoted to the study of commercial exchange, in particular the relation between price and value. The pragmatic study of exchange situations makes it possible to identify different forms of valuation that are both embedded into the cognitive resources of actors and objectified in arrangements around commodities. From a structural point of view, these forms of valuation can be considered a “transformation group,” in the sense described by Claude Lévi-Strauss. However, this cognitive structuralism cannot help us to understand the changes undergone by these forms over historical time. For this, we must call on another type of structuralism, which might be labeled “systemic” structuralism. This proposes narratives that aim to establish chains of causality between local processes of commodification and the evolutions of capitalism at a global level.
This article was translated from the French by Michael C. Behrent and edited by Chloe Morgan and Nicolas Barreyre.
I am deeply grateful to the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and to its president, Pierre-Cyrille Hautcœur, for the honor of delivering the thirty-ninth Marc Bloch lecture. I have only modified a few details of the address, meaning that this text is not, strictly speaking, an article: the form of a lecture, which is intended to be heard, differs greatly from that of an article, which is destined to be read. Nonetheless, I have added some forty footnotes so as to provide bibliographic references to works that are mentioned or evoked, but often allusively, and to clarify as much as possible statements that might seem hasty or obscure.
This is a translation of:Pragmatique de la valeur et structures de la marchandise