The Social Construction of the Meanings of Price

Abstract

The activity of translating something into a monetary amount – the price - is central to markets. Yet we know remarkably little about the practice of pricing beyond theories of economic rationale or market positioning and, as a construct, price has remained largely within the economists’ domain. This research pushes for and contributes towards the need for more substantive studies of pricing. With particular emphasis on money-meanings, this research applies prior socio-economic research in an examination of discourses of the pricing process in order to better understand pricing as a social and meaning-full activity. In its focus on pricers this research contributes to the call for more studies of supply-side meaning-making within markets, and addresses the consumer-focussed imbalance in previously published price research

Date of Award	31 Dec 2013
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Richard Elliott (Supervisor) & Avi Shankar (Supervisor)