The Making of Finance : Perspectives from the Social Sciences
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an edited collection of contributions from authors working within the social studies of finance (SSOF) tradition, a research programme that emerged twenty years ago, with the aim of addressing a diversity of financial fieldworks and related theoretical questions.
Abstract: Using a variety of theoretical frameworks drawn from the social sciences, the contributions in this edited collection offer a critical perspective on the dominant paradigms used in contemporary financial activities. Through a detailed study of the organisation and functioning of financial intermediaries and institutions, the contributors to this volume analyse ‘finance in the making’, by shedding light on the structuring of banking and financial systems, on their capacity to prescribe action and control, on their modes of regulation and, more generally, on the process of financialisation. Contributions presented in this volume have been written by authors working within the ‘social studies of finance’ tradition, a research programme that emerged twenty years ago, with the aim of addressing a diversity of financial fieldworks and related theoretical questions. This book, therefore, sheds light on different areas that are representative of contemporary financial realities. Specifically, it first studies the work of financial employees: traders, salespeople, investment managers, financial analysts, investment consultants, etc. but also provides an analysis of a range of financial instruments: financial schemes and contracts, financial derivatives, socially responsible investment funds, as well as market rules and regulations. Finally, it puts into perspective the organisations contributing to this financial reality: those developing and selling financial services (retail banks, brokerage houses, asset management firms, private equity firms, etc.), and also those contributing to the regulation of such activities (banking regulators, financial market authorities, credit rating agencies, the State, to name a few).
Each text can be read without any specific knowledge of finance; the book is thus addressed to anyone willing to better understand the intricacies of contemporary financial realities.
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TL;DR: A typology for various interpretations of algorithms as ethnographic objects is developed, accounting for their structural ignorance and shedding light on a continuum of the changing human-machine/trader-algorithm relation.
Abstract: In this article, we make sense of financial algorithms as new objects of concern for organizational ethnography. We conceive of algorithms as ‘objects of ignorance’ jeopardizing traditional ethnogr...
47 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that carving out pathways to finance the sustainable development goal (SDG) agenda entails to reconsider tacit assumptions regarding the functioning of financial systems and introduce the alternative endogenous money theory using a consistent theoretical and accounting framework.
Abstract: This paper contends that carving out pathways to finance the sustainable development goal (SDG) agenda entails to reconsider tacit assumptions regarding the functioning of financial systems. We first use a history of economic thought perspective to demonstrate the flaws of the loanable fund theory, which has come to underlie SDG finance strategies. We then introduce the alternative endogenous money theory using a consistent theoretical and accounting framework. This allows us to identify and discuss a set of financing mechanisms that would permit to bridge the SDG budget gap. These mechanisms include the issuing of sovereign green bonds, the modification of the European Central Bank’s collateral framework, changes in capital adequacy ratios, a market of SDG lending certificates and the introduction of rediscounting policies. We back up the discussion with examples from economic history.
38 citations
Cites background from "The Making of Finance : Perspective..."
...As argued by several authors (Lagoarde-Segot and Paranque, 2018; Muniesa, 2015; MacKenzie and Milo, 2003; Chambost and Lenglet, 2018) the behavior of actors and the legal/technical system within which they operate is shaped by underlying theoretical representations of the nature of social reality and economic knowledge....
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...As argued by several authors (Lagoarde-Segot and Paranque, 2018; Muniesa, 2015; MacKenzie and Milo, 2003; Chambost and Lenglet, 2018) the behavior of actors and the legal/technical system within which they operate is shaped by underlying theoretical representations of the nature of social reality…...
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TL;DR: Hart argues that money articulates social hierarchies and inequalities that connect intimate personal experience with the rest of humanity, and that the multiplicity of violence and the liberating potential of these interdependences does not correspond to a single logic, contrary to what abstract economic theories propose as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This text presents Keith Hart’s anthropology of money andits importance for a political anthropology of the financialindustry. Hart argues that money articulates social hierarchies and inequalities that connect intimate personal experience with the rest of humanity, and that the multiplicity of violence and the liberating potential of these interdependences does not correspond to a single logic, contrary to what abstract economic theories propose, criticalor otherwise. This approach makes a major contribution toa political anthropology of finance, analysing the multiplicity of practices in the financial industry from the perspective of how they participate in the constitution of globalmonetary power relations, producing and transformingsocial hierarchies through their distribution of money andtheir justification of this distribution
18 citations
TL;DR: Cortina et al. as discussed by the authors argue that the desire to achieve the separation of facts and values is unscientific on the very terms endorsed by its advocates, and this separation is refuted by empirical observation.
Abstract: Researchers misunderstand their role in creating ethical problems when they allow dogmas to purportedly divorce scientists and scientific practices from the values that they embody. Cortina (J Bus Ethics.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04195-8
, 2019), Edwards (J Bus Ethics.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04197-6
, 2019), and Powell (J Bus Ethics.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04196-7
, 2019) help us clarify and further develop our position by responding to our critique of, and alternatives to, this misleading separation. In this rebuttal, we explore how the desire to achieve the separation of facts and values is unscientific on the very terms endorsed by its advocates—this separation is refuted by empirical observation. We show that positivists like Cortina and Edwards offer no rigorous theoretical or empirical justifications to substantiate their claims, let alone critique ours. Following Powell, we point to how classical pragmatism understands ‘purpose’ in scientific pursuits while also providing an alternative to the dogmas of positivism and related philosophical positions. In place of dogmatic, unscientific cries about an abstract and therefore always-unobservable ‘reality,’ we invite all organizational scholars to join us in shifting the discussion about quantitative research towards empirically grounded scientific inquiry. This makes the ethics of actual people and their practices central to quantitative research, including the thoughts, discourses, and behaviors of researchers who are always in particular places doing particular things. We propose that quantitative researchers can thus start to think about their research practices as a kind of work, rather than having the status of a kind of dogma. We conclude with some implications that this has for future research and education, including the relevance of research and research methods.
16 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors put forth ecological finance theory as a new vision for 21st century financial economics and analyzed the impact of an increase in ecological transparency on resilience and diversity by developing a new stock flow consistent model with mitotic control.
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