2007/03/01 by Christian Heath, Paul Luff · 68 citations
Arts and Humanities · Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · #Agency (philosophy) #Art History and Market Analysis #Auction Theory and Applications #Business #Commerce #Common value auction #Competition (biology) #Computer science #Economics #Marketing #Microeconomics #Order (exchange) #Sociology #Valuation (finance) #Value (mathematics) #Wine Industry and Tourism
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1468-4446.2007.00139.x
published in British Journal of Sociology 58(1), 63-85 (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2007/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Auctions provide an institutional solution to a social problem; they enable the legitimate pricing and exchange of goods where those goods are of uncertain value. In turn, auctions raise a number of social and organizational issues that are resolved within the interaction that arise in sales by auction. In this paper, we examine sales of fine art, antiques and objets d'art and explore the ways in which auctioneers mediate competition between buyers and establish a value for goods. In particular, we explore how bids are elicited, co-ordinated and revealed so as to rapidly escalate the price of goods in a transparent manner that enables the legitimate valuation and exchange of goods. In directing attention towards the significance of the social interaction, including talk, visual and material conduct, the paper contributes to the growing corpus of ethnographic studies of markets. It suggests that to understand the operation of markets and their outcomes, and to unpack issues of agency, trust and practice, we need to place the 'interaction order' at the heart of analytic agenda.