Enchanted Exchanges: Evidence from Media Coverage of the Maker Movement

Recent research in organizational theory has revealed that, at their birth, new markets and organizational forms often resemble social movements. The inherent risk and high probability of failure associated with new and unrecognizable ventures deters actors with solely economic and instrumental motivations, leaving pioneers with value-rational social and political, as well as economic, goals to mobilize support for new sectors, products and organizational forms. As new ventures within a field become more legitimate and profitable, the field undergoes a process of rationalization and disenchantment: politically- and socially-motivated pioneers are displaced by profit-seeking market actors. In this study we use the case of the Maker Movement, an education and technology-focused movement that has given birth to a market, to challenge and append theories of movements and markets and construct and test a theory of “enchanted exchange.” We propose that not all industries and organizations undergo this process o...