Grassroots Responzibilization and Makeshift Markets

Prior research has yielded insights into how market actors build up and strive for permanent, institutionalized structures. In this paper, we investigate the emergence of a temporary and complementary makeshift market, characterized by flexible socio-material constellations. By drawing on ethnographic data in the light of the recent refugee crisis and by using institutional theory as an analytical lens, we map out a process through which individuals are collectively moved to respond to the refugee crisis, form social networks, and engage in market-making practices. We identify this as a grassroots process of responsibilization, and argue that the makeshift market affords an avenue through which this can take place. We argue that moral outrage is the underlying mechanism that drives this grassroots responsibilization. We add to literature on responsibilization and market dynamics by discussing (1) the emergence and the decline of temporary and complementary marketplace structures and (2) mapping out a responsibilization process stemming from the grassroots experiential level.