The fetish concept and its application to high technology market dynamics

L'apport du concept de fétiche à l'étude des dynamiques des marchés de haute technologie

Laurent Busca ()
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Laurent Busca: UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier, MRM-MKG - Montpellier Research in Management - Marketing - MRM - Montpellier Research in Management - UPVD - Université de Perpignan Via Domitia - UM - Université de Montpellier

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Abstract: The literature on market system dynamics often conceptualizes the coexistence of multiple discourses within a market as problematic, typically resulting in either conflict or the dominance of one discourse over others (through mechanisms such as invisibilization or co-optation). This study challenges that assumption by positing that coexistence is not inherently problematic. Drawing on the anthropological concept of the fetish, it analyzes these dynamics. We demonstrate that the fetishization of a technology enables the attribution of specific qualities to it while obscuring its creation process. Consequently, this fetishized technology engenders a division of roles that reconfigures the surrounding social space, shaped by the ambivalences generated through the fetishization process. This research contributes to the literature on market system dynamics by showing how the fetishization of technologies can reconfigure high-technology markets and by proposing that ambivalence may serve as a mechanism for stabilizing social roles.

Keywords: ambivalence; technology; anthropology; market dynamics; Ambivalence; Technologie; Anthropologie; Dynamiques de marché; Fétiche (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11-13
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Published in 24èmes Journées Normandes de Recherche en Consommation, Nov 2025, Caen, France

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