Abstract:

Le marché, l’un des concepts majeurs en économie, demeure la source originelle de discorde en sciences sociales (Zélizer, 1992 ; Bertrand et Catto, 2020). Le débat autour de ce concept est controversant et se situe à plusieurs niveaux comme le statut, le rôle de mécanisme d’allocation des ressources et le caractère autonome et modélisateur du marché des autres secteurs de la société, le modèle pur économique du marché, etc. Le modèle pur économique du marché est critiqué pour son abstraction poussée et de son a priori épistémologique, posant ainsi d’énormes difficultés au sein de la discipline économique (Dénis, 2008), qui s’est voulue science des rapports marchands dès le départ. En s’insérant dans ce débat et mobilisant la théorie des marchés multiples (Zélizer, 1992), nous tentons, à travers l’étude de cas du Grand Marché de Bamako, de répondre aux questions fondamentales, non exclusives : en comprenant le marché comme une structure normative : quelles valeurs sous-tendent l’échange de marché et comment émergent-elles ? Comment les valeurs du marché affectent-elles en retour la vie sociale ? La rationalité économique sur le marché est-elle une prescription normative ? Quels sont les débats contemporains autour du marché et leurs points d’achoppements ?

Market, a major concept in economics, remains the real source of discord in social sciences (Zélizer, 1992; Bertrand and Catto, 2020). The debate around this concept is controversial and is at several levels such as the status, the resource allocation mechanism role, the autonomous and modelling nature of other sectors of society by market, and the market's purely economic model etc. This model is criticized for its extremely abstract, hypothetical, and epistemological nature, thus posing important difficulties in the field of economics (Dénis, 2008), which is intended to be a science of market relations from the outset. By partaking in this debate and employing the theory of multiple markets (Zélizer, 1992), answers to the fundamental and non-exclusive questions that follow, by considering the market as a normative structure shall be provided. To this effect, the ‘Grand Marché de Bamako’ shall be used as a case study. What values underlie market exchange and how do they emerge? How do market values in turn affect social life? Is economic efficiency on the market a normative prescription? What are the contemporary debates around the market and their stumbling blocks?

Mahamadou Bassirou Tangara is assistant professor of development economics at the University of Social Sciences and Management in Bamako (USSGB). His research focuses on poverty, informal economy and armed conflicts. He has done extensive fieldwork in Mali (Segou, Mopti, Gao and Bamako). His main contribution in development studies is the understanding of the role of hydro-agricultural developments in poverty reduction. For more than 3 years, he has been interested in issues of armed conflict with the objective of contributing to the understanding of the relationship between armed conflict and the informal economy. In this area, his work focuses on understanding the economy in times of armed conflict. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and has been the recipient of several research grants and awards.