Showing papers in "Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory in 2018"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the promises and pitfalls associated with Insurtech, the anticipated innovations in the insurance industry associated with social media marketing, artificial intelligence, big data, and big data.
Abstract: This paper examines the promises and pitfalls associated with Insurtech – the anticipated innovations in the insurance industry associated with social media marketing, artificial intelligence, big ...
31 citations
TL;DR: Laclau introduces three preconditions of populism: the formation of an antagonistic frontier separating the 'people' from the enemy; an equivalential articulation of demands; and the unification of...
Abstract: Laclau introduces three preconditions of populism: the formation of an antagonistic frontier separating the ‘people’ from the enemy; an equivalential articulation of demands; and the unification of...
22 citations
TL;DR: It is argued that considerations of price facilitate productive avenues into value alongside, and beyond, analyses of exploitation within new media economy and communicative capitalism.
Abstract: The so-called attention economy of social media relies on continuous attempts at capturing the ever fleeting and restless attention of users as they click away, move between tabs and refresh pages ...
21 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates how and why the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) managed to maintain its status as a term for the competitive money market colloquially, professionally and in the economic literature for so long.
Abstract: Up until around 2008 and the subsequent revelation of systematic manipulation, the integrity and ‘facticity’ of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) were rarely questioned. Academics treated LIBOR and the Eurodollar market as if they were synonyms. Central bankers conducted monetary policy as if the LIBOR was an objective reflection of the money market rate. Corporates and households entered into LIBOR-indexed financial contacts as if a money market was the underlying benchmark. This paper investigates how and why LIBOR managed to maintain its status as a term for the competitive money market colloquially, professionally and in the economic literature for so long. By adopting a theoretical framework drawing insights from both political economy and sociology, and applying it to the LIBOR-indexed derivatives market, it is shown how the benchmark's appearance betrays its fundamental nature. This process benefits certain actors within the market: the banks. Importantly, however, it also reveals h...
20 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the state is actively engaged in opening out the contestability and unpredictability of price and prices, and this engagement advances the sociology of price by making price a contestable value.
Abstract: There is increasing recognition that the experiment has emerged as a preferred mode of policy making in advanced liberal states and that policy experiments are operating at the frontier of neoliberal reform processes. In this article, by considering Finland’s recent turn to the experiment, we highlight how this non-conventional mode of policy making is connected to a dimension of change so far missing in analyses of experimentality, namely the activation of contests in regard to price and prices. We emphasize how, via experimental policies, the state is actively engaged in opening out the contestability and unpredictability of price. Recognition of this engagement advances the sociology of price by outlining how the state is proactive in making price a contestable value.
17 citations
TL;DR: Although cultural economy scholarship has highlighted the inherently speculative character of economic action and argued that regulation is often imbricated with (rather than independent from) the... as discussed by the authors, it has also been argued that economic action is inherently speculative.
Abstract: Although cultural economy scholarship has highlighted the inherently speculative character of economic action and argued that regulation is often imbricated with (rather than independent from) the ...
16 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show why offshore is a form, not a place, by observing our implication in offshoring finance and detention, through a systems theorization that examines and compares...
Abstract: This paper shows why offshore is a form, not a place, by observing our implication in offshoring finance and detention. This is undertaken through a systems theorization that examines and compares ...
13 citations
TL;DR: The notion of post-democracy has become a key notion for describing the current stage of democracy in western societies as mentioned in this paper, although modern democracies still maintain a strong commitment to traditional democratic principles.
Abstract: Colin Crouch’s notion of ‘post-democracy’ has become a key notion for describing the current stage of democracy in western societies. Crouch argues that although modern democracies still maintain t...
12 citations
TL;DR: The authors discusses the concept of public opinion at a theoretical level, starting from the recognition of the importance of this concept for sociology and reconnecting with older strands in sociolinguistic research.
Abstract: This paper discusses the concept of public opinion at a theoretical level. It starts from the recognition of the importance of this concept for sociology and reconnects with older strands in sociol...
12 citations
TL;DR: This article argued persuasively that the distinctive competence of economic sociology is its capacity to deal with economic uncertainty, deconstructed the econometrics, and argued that economic sociology can deal with uncertainty.
Abstract: In important earlier work, Jens Beckert (1996, 2002) argued persuasively that the distinctive competence of economic sociology is its capacity to deal with economic uncertainty, deconstructed the e...
10 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the axiomatic status of this category in material terms by focusing on the nexus between housing, price, wealth, and ineq is discussed, and it is shown that price is one of the key axioms of capitalism.
Abstract: Price is one of the key axioms of capitalism This paper seeks to understand the axiomatic status of this category in material terms by focusing on the nexus between housing, price, wealth and ineq
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretically motivated and empirically informed study of the space-claiming practices of a group of Irish peasant rebels, "the Threshers", is presented.
Abstract: This article is a theoretically motivated and empirically informed study of the space-claiming practices of a group of Irish peasant rebels, ‘the Threshers’. In the early-nineteenth century, the Th...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe how events strike and haunt, from different locations and in multiple ways, and they are always altogether unexpected, and as Robin Wagner-Pacifici repeats, events appear to come out of the blue.
Abstract: Events strike and haunt, from different locations and in multiple ways, and they are always altogether unexpected. As Robin Wagner-Pacifici repeats, ‘events appear to come out of the blue’. That sh...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors locate price as a critical socio-theoretical concern and as a socio-economic problem, and propose a solution to the problem of price and pricing.
Abstract: This special issue is concerned with price and pricing. It seeks to locate price as a critical socio-theoretical concern and as a socio-theoretical problem. This is by no means the first time price...
TL;DR: The pragmatic sociology of critique developed by French sociologist Luc Boltanski in cooperation with such authors as Laurent Thevenot and Eve Chiapello has received increasing attention in recent years as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In recent years, the pragmatic sociology of critique developed by French sociologist Luc Boltanski in cooperation with such authors as Laurent Thevenot and Eve Chiapello has received increasing att...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on a range of recent body-image initiatives, led by government, corporate and non-profit organisations, which aim to improve girls' and young women's levels of confidence and self-esteem.
Abstract: Arguments that the economic and socio-cultural should be understood as relational and intertwined, and that price involves a reciprocal relationship between the economic and socio-cultural, are increasingly prevalent in the social sciences I develop these notions of relationality and reciprocation through a feminist new materialist perspective, which emphasises the entanglement of and intra-action between what might usually be seen as independent and autonomous entities To do this, I focus on a range of recent body-image initiatives, led by government, corporate and non-profit organisations, which aim to improve girls’ and young women’s levels of confidence and self-esteem I explore how feminist theory tends to see such initiatives in terms of the expansion of the economic sphere into the socio-cultural, which involves a tainting or contamination of embodiment and feeling Rather than dispute these arguments, I take seriously theories and practices from cultural economy that see the economic and socio-cultural as co-constitutive I augment these ideas with a feminist new materialist approach and argue that the economic and socio-cultural are in intra-active relations: they do not precede or exist apart from each other In doing so, I consider how body-image initiatives can be understood as phenomena produced through these entangled intra-active relations, and offer an understanding of pricing as a simultaneously socio-cultural and economic process, where value and values become I also raise questions regarding how, ethically and politically, boundary making and unmaking can be conceived, and how despite being in entangled relations, asymmetries between economic and socio-cultural relations may be approached
TL;DR: Beckert as mentioned in this paper analyzes the nature of capitalism, the limitations of the economic approach, specifically rational choice theory, as an explanation for economic problems, and the role of rational choice in economic problems.
Abstract: Jens Beckert’s superb book builds on his earlier work analysing the nature of capitalism, the limitations of the economic approach, specifically rational choice theory, as an explanation for econom...
TL;DR: A new strand of writing in political philosophy deals with the linkage between politics of recognition and politics of redistribution as mentioned in this paper, rather than the tension between recognition and redistribution, which is not the case here.
Abstract: A new strand of writing in political philosophy deals with the linkage – rather than the tension – between politics of recognition and politics of redistribution. This scholarship usually deals wit...
TL;DR: In this article, Imagined futures attempt to provide a fresh lens through which to understand the unfolding of capitalist dynamics, starting from the observation that modern societies develop a specific temporal structure.
Abstract: Imagined Futures attempts to provide a fresh lens through which to understand the unfolding of capitalist dynamics. It starts from the observation that modern societies develop a specific temporal ...
TL;DR: A book with the general title What is an event? seems to travel firmly in the well-worn paths of a debate in social theory that is associated with the names of Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, Brian M... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A book with the general title What is an event? seems to travel firmly in the well-worn paths of a debate in social theory that is associated with the names of Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, Brian M...