Markets are human creations amenable to redesign, not natural forces

Evidence

Markets, like technologies, are surely means to be tinkered with, modified, redesigned, improved, and on occasion delimited not ends that can only be embraced or be rejected. They are not forces of nature, but human creations. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1237

Categorization

• XREF: Mirrors the performativity thesis’s core claim that economics shapes rather than merely describes markets; connects to the reader’s stated focus on the book-length performativity argument. — connects to: Markets can be performatively constructed by agents who are not atomistic homo economicus — Donald MacKenzie & Yuval Millo, Constructing a Market, Performing Theory, 25; The economy is a human creation and therefore can be transformed. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 41; Markets require abstract standardized assets that may not physically exist yet. (+11 more)

Broader Connections

• Market economies require deliberate political construction, not natural emergence #corroborates (0.90) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 364
• Market designers deliberately conflate actual markets with the abstract market #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2275
• Neoliberals marketed the market as natural by borrowing early evolutionary science metaphors #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2127
• Market ideology’s appeal rests on a metaphysical equation of markets with human nature itself #corroborates (0.82) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 587
• The market is an inescapable belief-structure one cannot step outside #contradicts (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 483
• The market cannot by definition be a collective project #contradicts (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 609
• A market model can shape markets actively rather than merely describing them #expands (0.78) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1165