Market devices and infrastructures: how they differ and why it matters

This article seeks to clarify the relationship between market studies research associated with the notions of ‘market devices’ and ‘market infrastructures.’ The relation between these terms has remained hazy in prior work, impeding their conjunction in analyses of markets. We treat devices and infrastructures as deeply entwined components of market agencements, which interact in the everyday performance of markets. However, these components remain distinguishable on the basis of two dimensions: the extension and unavoidability of their networks. These dimensions both facilitate empirical research on the interaction of devices and infrastructures and offer insight on the dynamics between them: the asymmetrical, limiting influence of infrastructure; the potential challenges posed by devices; the ever-present possibility of roles shifting over time. This conceptualization of how the terms differ then anchors our analysis of why the distinction matters. Infrastructures and devices make discrete contributions to the framing of the market (what we call ‘radical’ and ‘instrumental’ framing), which empower actants via different mechanisms (e.g. the ‘discretionary’ power that accrues to key infrastructural actants). The article establishes a basis for an expansion of sociomaterial research on markets, providing both empirical strategies and theoretical questions for future work.