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The configuration of actors in market practice

Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, per.andersson{at}hhs.se

Katarina Aspenberg

Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, katarina.aspenberg{at}hhs.se

Hans Kjellberg

Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, hans.kjellberg{at}hhs.se

This paper addresses three conceptual challenges concerning actors and agency that arise when taking interest in market practice: i) how agency is awarded in practical situations, ii) how actors are preconfigured, and iii) how actors are represented. These issues are explored in three empirical scenes taken from a case study of the introduction of an e-procurement system at an international transport and logistics company. First, we suggest that practical interaction can be fruitfully regarded as a process of interdefinition involving prescriptions and subscriptions between acting entities, or actants . Second, we employ the term inscription to address efforts to affect in advance the configuration of such actants. Third, we suggest that actors are entities to which actions are ascribed, ex post. Through this secondary process a number of actants may be subsumed under a common actor label, thus offering a way of accounting for agency as part of a practice perspective. We conclude by discussing implications of the proposed vocabulary for multiplicity, reflexivity and market agency.

Key Words: actants • actor configuration • market actors • market agency • market practice

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