Inequality and Democratic Egalitarianism by Mark Harvey;Norman Geras; & NORMAN GERAS

Author:Mark Harvey;Norman Geras; & NORMAN GERAS
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526114020
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2018-02-08T16:00:00+00:00

Asymmetries of power in exchange

The second phase of the analysis opens up a further, and complementary, systemic source for generating inequalities over commodity resources, involving a different layer of analysis of the relationality between production and exchange: asymmetries of power in exchange. In MEAB and elsewhere, the IEP approach analyses exchanges in terms of the social organisation of the parties to exchange, and the power relations consequential upon that organisation. If viewed in these terms, power inequalities are endemic to virtually all market exchanges, although varying enormously both historically and societally, particularly for labour markets and consumer markets, the main focus here. On the labour side of the exchange, gender, ethnicity, and migration, socially condition the power relations differentiating between men and women, different ethnic groups, residents and migrants. This social organisation of the parties to exchange is formed within both the market and non-market spheres of societies, in varied interdependent ways. The historical emergence of trades unions, and, more widely, the very different societal arrangements for negotiating between federations of firms and trades union organisation, in Nordic, continental European and Anglo-Saxon political economies, fundamentally condition power asymmetries of exchange. The casual, temporary, unskilled, un-unionised, female, ethnic, migrant worker is defined by ramified and intersecting dimensions of power asymmetry in relation to any employer. Firm structures within different sectors, interfirm supply chains, emergence of significant oligopolies such as Microsoft or Apple, are forms of social organisation of the parties to exchanges, whether firm to firm, firm to employees, or firms to end consumers. Informal and criminal economic enterprises, often recruiting marginal and status-less migrant workers, exercise peculiarly exploitative power in exchange. The historical emergence of supermarkets, for example, and the way they vary between different societies, involve new power asymmetries between retailers and consumers, when compared with street markets or small independent shops. But equally, they have involved new power relations between retailers and manufacturers, farmers and logistics companies.

The asymmetric power between consumer and retailer or service provider is distinctive, and varies depending on the forms of organisation of retailing or service provision, or the extent to which there is organised consumer voice. But the typical relation is one of dependency: first, the consumer has no choice but to buy in order to sustain a social and biological life, rather than themselves make from the inputs available to manufacturers or service providers – although there are few ‘complete’ products requiring no further work from consumers.

Second, citizens as consumers are more individualised than they are as workers in most circumstances, making purchases independently of each other, and confronting highly organised and concentrated providers of services or products. It is notoriously difficult for consumers to organise themselves to apply market pressure, with rare and ephemeral instances of consumer boycotts.

Third, there is a critical asymmetry of information about price commodities and costs of their production between consumers and producers, the former having no idea about the margins implicit in prices presented on the market – hence the bewildering array of bargain offers, bogoffs, loyalty points, loss leaders etc.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.