SEVEN FIRM OLIGOPOLY

An Oligopoly is a form of economy where there are few sellers for a product or service. In the Greek language, oligopoly means few sellers. An oligopoly is a bridge between a typical free market situation, and a monopolistic situation. While oligopolies don’t dictate price and availability like a monopoly does, they often turn into friendly competitors, since it is in all the members' interest to maintain a stable market and profitable prices. The decisions of one firm influence, and are influenced by, the decisions of other firms. A market with a few sellers (oligopoly) and a few buyers (oligopsony) is referred to as a bilateral oligopoly. (wikipedia.org)
The new oligopoly is made up of multinational corporations that have chosen specific product or service categories to dominate. In each category, over time, less than a handful of major players prosper. Starting a new company in that market segment is difficult, and the few that do succeed are often gobbled up or run out of business by the oligopolies. These companies are described as start-ups with the intention to be bought-out by an oligopolistic member.
Oligopolies do not usually aspire to be monopolies, which would leave them with many codes and regulations to live up to. As oligopolies, they make plenty of money and avoid the attention of the regulators, and consumers.
The seven-firm oligopoly refers to the point in time when what Nestle offers the consumer is a slightly different version of what Disney offers, what the World Economic Forum offers, what the International Criminal Court offers, what the BRIC offers, and what the UN offers. Globalization first begins to homogenize what we see, then cultural norms and values, and finally what we need. Advertising is very much alive, and the line between advertising and propaganda undulates between a smudge and invisible.

The Seven Firm Oligopoly, 2006

"Seven-Firm Oligopoly” is about the globalization struggle and the shrinking seven bodies of land, meaning inhabitable land and land in general due to rising waters.

Seven firms within an oligopoly, whether that oligopoly be over copper, oil, water, food, medicine, entertainment or travel, is a median number of firms one will usually find in an oligopolistic situation. In this image, the seven firms represent seven continents, and people travel, float, tour between one another. In an Oligopoly, to maximize industry profit, the firms must agree on a "monopoly" price and agree to maintain it by limiting production and allocating market shares. I can see the entire world running on a seven-firm oligopoly.

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"If everything is adrift then nothing moves" -Paul Virilio from The Accident of Art.