2003. Vol. 4. No. 2

Here is a short fragment of a new book that will be published in the summer 2003 with the title of: “The basics of the institutional dynamics: to the new sociology of markets”. The book will include a big theoretical part and the part devoted to empirical studies of the market that were held during the last two years.  The provided text is the theoretical part of the book. The author analyzes the notion of competition and compares several basic approaches to its definition.    

The paper overviews the results of the study that was done by a group of authors from the Russian Independent Institute for Social and National Problems in 2002. The study was held in several Russian regions. The attitude towards small business is under focus. Proto-entrepreneurs are identified (those who are more likely to be engaged in small business), their social and demographic characteristics are given. The role of the supporting structures is also considered. The motive typologies of proto-entrepreneurs are constructed. 

The author analyzes the state formation from the historical point of view. The monopoly of legitimate violence is considered. He investigates the problems of legitimacy, borders’ caring, structural and substantial aspects of the state.

The approach to the markets as cultures supposes at least three fields of studies: constitutive rules and roles; local rationality; dynamics of authorities and changes. The paper deals with each of the fields. The methodological issues of the study the markets as cultures are discussed after that. The author supports his statement by giving examples of his own ethnographic studies of the stock exchange, bond market and futures markets on the Wall-street. 

The author addresses to the study of the embeddedness of the new economic subjects in the villages, their place in the social structure and the relation problem with the local people, authorities, big collective farms and other business partners and competitors. The author tries to analyze to what extent the rural area with its traditions and stereotypes, relatively poor population and weaker market structure was favorable to the appearance of new effective owners; what rigidities this infrastructure put on their development and to what extent it influenced the specifics of the modern rural entrepreneurship. The empirical base for the survey was the data of the sociological questionnaire of the rural entrepreneurs of the Novosibirsk region, which was held by the employees of the department for social problems of the Institute of Economics RAS in 2000-2001.   

The paper analyzes the past, the present and the future of the marketing companies. The term of “market research” is discussed. The phenomenon of consumption is built into the cultural, historical and philosophical analysis.