The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Auctions: The Social Construction of Value.
Abstract
Long the preferred method of exchange for antiques and horseflesh, auctions are used today to sell everything from bestselling books to real estate, government bonds to abandoned automobiles. As sociologist Charles Smith reveals, the mechanical law of supply and demand rarely governs the auction process. Rather value is determined by a complex social process combining both the beliefs and actions of the auction participants and the assumptions and practices on the auction floor. Based on years of participation in and observation of different types of auctions and interviews with hundreds of auctioneers, Smith gives us not only a theoretical understanding of the auction process but the sights and sounds as well.
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Citations
Cited by
Toward a Comparative Sociology of Valuation and Evaluation
Lamont, M. (2012) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-070308-120022 · Cited by 1,492
The Economic Sociology of Conventions: Habit, Custom, Practice, and Routine in Market Order
Biggart, N. W., & Beamish, T. D. (2003) · Annual Review of Sociology · doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100051 · Cited by 345
Self-citationIn community we trust: Online security communication at eBay
Boyd, J. (2006) · Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00147.x · Cited by 132
Bringing art to market: The diversity of pricing styles in a local art market
O’Neil, K. M. (2008) · Poetics · doi:10.1016/j.poetic.2007.12.002 · Cited by 21
Gift-Giving as a Conversion Device in Online Marketplaces
Darr, A. (2022) · Social Media + Society · doi:10.1177/20563051221114463 · Cited by 6
Metadata
- Authors
- Biggart, N. W., & Smith, C. W.
- Venue
- Administrative Science Quarterly
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1990-12
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 725
- ISSN
- 0001-8392 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2006591831
- Cited by
- 280
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 3.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Auctions: The Social Construction of Value. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/2393518
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- Biggart, N. W., & Smith, C. W. (1990). Auctions: The Social Construction of Value. Administrative Science Quarterly. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393518
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
