Valuation beyond the market : on symbolic and economic value in contemporary art

Abstract

Social scientists Ulf Wuggenig and Steffen Rudolph concentrate upon the question of how the art market and its conservative impact and agency are researched empirically in academic writing. In their comparative study, “Valuation beyond the Market: On Symbolic and Economic Value in Contemporary Art,” they present the status of current sociological research and its findings—including their own. What emerges here is a regulatory mechanism typical of the market, which generates two different forms of value: symbolic value and economic value.