Rethinking traditional markets as provisioning sites in an inclusive economy

THIS EVENT IS CANCELLED AS IT COINCIDES WITH UCU STRIKE ACTION

Rethinking traditional markets as provisioning sites in an inclusive economy: insights and contributions from the Markets4People project

This presentation reflects on the 3.5 year Markets4People research project which aimed to understand and enhance the community value of traditional retail markets in the UK.

This was a collaborative and policy-oriented research project, through which we worked not only to produce new understandings of the value of markets but also to advance new propositions, generate practical resources and drive debate with policy makers and practitioners. In this presentation, we present key findings from the research and reflect on the research process, drawing on wider debates about value, the market and the economy. Working with an understanding of value as socially produced and contested, we draw on 50 interviews with key actors in the UK markets sector to critically engage with anthropological and economic debates on value. We question the framing of traditional retail markets as marginal and declining,and instead we reposition markets as key social and provisioning infrastructures from a foundational economy approach.. We develop new tools and methods for measuring the value of markets, as community hubs for inclusive economies, drawing together 20 examples of innovative practice in UK markets. We conclude with some reflection on the implications of the research for wider debates about how markets and economies might be more widely animated with ‘more-than economic’ value. We see potential for further engaged, collaborative and activist research to develop and mobilise new understandings of the value of markets and other socially-embedded and oriented economic activities

The speakers
Sara Gonzalez (University of Leeds) is a critical urban geographer interested in the political and economic transformation of cities, neoliberal urban policies, gentrification and contestation. Currently she is researching the transformation of traditional retail markets and their social value. She also conducts comparative research in European and Latin American cities. She espouses participatory action research methodologies.

Myfanwy Taylor (University College London) is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at The Bartlett School of Planning. Her research spans urban economic development, planning and politics, with a particular focus on collaborative research with grassroots groups, market traders, industrial firms and other small businesses. 


Part of the 2023 Spring Series of Soundbites and Director's Seminars - Prosperity and the Popular 

Original image by anja_schindler from Pixabay