Markets conceal their own mechanisms of visibility and knowledge production.
Evidence
A more typical Foucauldian approach would commence to undo the invisibility of the economy and the market as an invisible “telescope” and “information machine.” This would mean rendering visible the market’s own “machine of seeing,” rather than seeing like the unseen market itself. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 283
Categorization
- DEFINE: Distinguishes Foucauldian analysis of the market as a visibility apparatus from neoliberal epistemology that presupposes market invisibility.
- XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier discussion of the ‘thought collective’ knowing more than individual members — the market as distributed knowledge device parallels Hayekian information theory discussed elsewhere. — connects to: Arbitrageurs deliberately conceal exploitable market inefficiencies because disclosure destroys them. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 457; Market ideology fragments classes into individual consumers and hides production; Market production for unknown buyers erodes personal knowledge between parties — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Market ideology fragments classes into individual consumers and hides production
#exemplifies(0.92) - Market ideology conceals exploitation by making exchange stand in for production
#exemplifies(0.90) - Market production for unknown buyers erodes personal knowledge between parties
#expands(0.85) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750 - The invisible hand’s hiddenness explains why markets lacked popular legitimacy.
#expands(0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 67