The Dynamics of Auction: Social Interaction and the Sale of Fine Art and Antiques (Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive and Computational Perspectives) - Hardcover

Heath, Christian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521767407 ISBN 13: 9780521767408

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2013

Synopsis

Each year art and antiques worth many billions of pounds are sold at auction. These auctions consist of numerous, intense episodes of social interaction through which the price of goods rapidly escalates until sold on the strike of a hammer. In this book, Christian Heath examines the fine details of interaction that arises at auctions, the talk and visible conduct of the participants and their use of various tools and technologies. He explores how auctioneers, buyers and their representatives are able to transact the sale of diversely priced goods in just seconds. Heath addresses how order, trust and competition are established at auctions and demonstrates how an economic institution of some global importance is founded upon embodied action and interaction. The analysis is based on video recordings of sales of art and antiques gathered within a range of national and international auction houses in Europe and the United States.

About this title

Review:

'... Christian Heath has written a wonderfully engaging and detailed account of how auctions are practically accomplished. The book provides a methodologically sophisticated investigation of a financially significant business activity. In so doing it offers an exemplary case study of social interaction in a workplace setting.' Tom Horlick-Jones, Symbolic Interaction

Book Description:

In this book, Heath explores how the sale of art and antiques worth many billions of pounds each year is accomplished through social interaction. He demonstrates how an economic institution of some global importance, the auction, rests upon the fine details of talk, gesture and material action.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0521767407
• ISBN 13: 9780521767408
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260