Provoking market studies with multiple markets

This introduction to the special issue on multiple markets argues that multiple markets – i.e. situations in which more than one market can be found at the same time and in the same space – is a common empirical finding that calls for studies of markets to further develop their understanding of markets. In unfolding this argument, the SI introduction points to empirical studies of multiple markets and, following that, spells out conceptual, normative, and analytical issues that this heuristic poses. These issues concern, in short, “what is understood by market?” “what is done to some setting by analyzing it as a market?” and “how to identify an instance of market?” Multiple markets is not a new topic in studies of markets, but rather a discussion that can be traced back to the 1980s. The introduction then presents the contributions to the special issue and suggests several types of multiple markets.