Marketization: How capitalist exchange disciplines workers and subverts democracy, By Greer, I. (Ed.), Umney, C. (Ed.), : Bloomsbury Publishing. 2022. pp. 192 £17.99.

• Published date: 01 November 2023
• Author: Edward Yates
• Date: 01 November 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12268

DOI: 10.1111/ntwe.12268

BOOK REVIEW

Marketization: How capitalist exchange

disciplines workers and subverts democracy

By Greer, I. (Ed.), Umney, C. (Ed.), : Bloomsbury Publishing. 2022.

pp. 192 £17.99.

Greer and Umney's Marketization: How Capitalist Exchange Disciplines Workers and Subverts

Democracy (2022) is an excellent and timely book on the topic of marketization. The book

synthesises Greer and Umney's existing research on marketization, presenting a theoretical account

of marketization which is articulated and substantiated through presentation of case study data.

The book's concise style and length means it is a useful primer for academics on the topic of

marketization, while being equally useful and relevant to students, and the general reader.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 (a Theory of Marketization) provides an account of

marketization across three chapters. Part 2 (Marketization in Practice) draws on empirical evidence

from three case studies; welfare‐to‐work programmes (Chapter 4), healthcare (Chapter 5), and live

music performances (Chapter 6). The final chapter (Chapter 7) looks beyond marketization,

foregrounding questions of resistance and alternatives to marketization.

Part 1 provides a clear introductionto the content of the book; it defines key terms used

throughout and conceptualises marketization and its importance. The book details how market

exchange—the precursors to marketization—occurs in a three‐stage process. First, commodifica-

tion must occur; exchangeable goods need to be made comparable so their value can be

quantified. Second, markets need to be opened to buyers and sellers to facilitate competition.

Third, transactions must occur frequently to maintain competitiveness (p. 6–7). Marketization is

thus defined as ‘the real‐world mechanism through which the process of exchange is reorganised—

whether by governments or by businesses—to bring these conditions about’(p. 7). The book goes on

to further define marketization as ‘a concrete administrative and organisational process that

produces intensified competition on the basis of price’(p. 24). Marketization is understood as being

different and distinct from privatisation as the creation of markets and market exchange can

occur within public and voluntary organisations, as research on UK Higher Education has

illustrated (Tholen, 2022). The book challenges the prevailing conceptualisation of free markets

being at one end of a spectrum and strong interventionist state regulation existing at the other.

Greer and Umney, drawing on Hilferding, note that states often intervene heavily in society to

facilitate competition. This intervention has few limits and can have extreme social

consequences, as Galeno (1997) famously noted in his description of South American neoliberal

dictatorships, when he stated how ‘people were in prisons so prices could be free’.

Part 1 also examines the impact marketization has on society. Greer and Umney argue

marketization is important as a specific process in capitalism because it manifests in the form of

New Technol Work Employ. 2023;38:578–581.578

|

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/ntwe

© 2023 Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Book review for New Technology, Work and Employment