The Architecture of Grey Markets: A Field-Theoretic Analysis of the Making of Quasi-Legal Cannabis Market in Southwest Virginia

Field theory has its roots in classical electromagnetism in Physics and was later adopted by the Gestalt psychologists in Europe in the early 20th century. Then, in his hugely influential contribution to sociology, French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu put forward his theory of fields to explain patterns of social hierarchy and power in different cultural arenas, including science. Yet, the theory of social fields received surprisingly little engagement so far in science and technology studies (STS). In my Ph.D work, I will use Bourdieu's theory of social fields and American sociologists Neil Fligstein's and Doug McAdam's concept of strategic action field (SAF) to study the dynamics of social action around the recently-emerged quasi-legal cannabis market in Southwest Virginia. So far, the literature on cannabis legalization has taken place in places like Colorado, California, or Washington, where there is a relatively liberal culture or social movement-type situations, which made those places more interesting to study in the first place and a relatively conservative region like Southwest Virginia has so far been neglected. My proposed project hypothesizes that the Southwest Virginia region is unique in terms of its political structure, the actions of social actors, and even the greyness of the market itself. The hypothesis is that it will take different types of stakes, approaches, and actions from the actors in this region, and how those actions are being shaped is the centrality of this work. Using a field-theoretic analysis, I examine how different actors, including hemp growers, store owners, politicians, law enforcement, and activists/researchers, situate themselves in a field of contention in which the norms and rules of governance are still unclear. Bourdieu's field theory helps analyze the process of social action, including the know-how of technologies and how actors orient their actions defined by the structure of the field.