"The ideology of free-market economics has become commonplace in America and Europe over the last ten years, yet the concept of the market and its implications for non-Western societies has been badly under-investigated. This ground-breaking new book challenges traditional views of market discourse and the idea that it dominates all social processes." "Strongly cross-cultural and comparative, it first examines the historical and sociological background to market discourses, then analyses how these discourses are deployed in relation to peasant and other markets, and finally looks at the manner in which other cultures describe their various systems of exchange." "Theoretical and wide-ranging, Contesting Markets challenges market discourse from a multidisciplinary perspective and raises important questions about the wisdom of applying market principles to non-first-world societies."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved