The Sociology Of Financial Markets

by Knorr Cetina, Karin; Preda, Alex

• ISBN13: 9780199275595
• ISBN10: 0199275599
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-12-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Financial markets have often been seen by economists as efficient mechanisms that fulfill vital functions within economies. But do financial markets really operate in such a straightforward manner?The Sociology of Financial Markets approaches financial markets from a sociological perspective. It seeks to provide an adequate sociological coneptualization of financial markets, and examines who the actors within them are, how they operate, within which networks, and how these networks arestructured. Patterns of trading, trading room coordination, and global interaction are studied to help us better understand how markets work and the types of reasoning behind these trends. Financial markets also have a structural impact on the governance of social and economic institutions. Until now, sociologists have examined issues of governance mostly with respect to the legal framework of financial transactions. Contributions in this book highlight the ways in which financialmarkets shape the inner working and structure of corporations and their governance.Finally the book seeks to investigate the symbolic aspects of financial markets. Financial markets affect not only economic and social structures but also societal cultural images and frameworks of meaning. Barbara Czarniawska demonstrates how representations of gender relationships are a case inpoint. Arguing that financial markets are not simply neutral with respect to questions of gender but enhance certain images and interpretations of men and women.Addressing many important topics from a sociological perspective for the first time, this book will be key reading for academics, researchers, and advanced students of financial markets in Business, Management, Economics, Finance, and Sociology.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
List of Tables	x
List of Contributors	xi
Introduction	1	(16)
Karin Knorr Cetina
Alex Preda
Section I. Inside Financial Markets
The Embeddedness of Electronic Markets: The Case of Global Capital Markets	17	(21)
Saskia Sassen
How are Global Markets Global? The Architecture of a Flow World	38	(24)
Karin Knorr Cetina
How a Superportfolio Emerges: Long-Term Capital Management and the Sociology of Arbitrage	62	(22)
Donald MacKenzie
How to Recognize Opportunities: Heterarchical Search in a Trading Room	84	(18)
Daniel Beunza
David Stark
Emotions on the Trading Floor: Social and Symbolic Expressions	102	(19)
Jean-Pierre Hassoun
Women in Financial Services: Fiction and More Fiction	121	(20)
Barbara Czarniawska
Section II. The Age of the Investor
The Investor as a Cultural Figure of Global Capitalism	141	(22)
Alex Preda
The Values and Beliefs of European Investors	163	(24)
Werner De Bondt
Conflicts of Interests in the US Brokerage Industry	187	(20)
Richard Swedberg
Section III. Finance and Governance
Interpretive Politics at the Federal Reserve	207	(22)
Mitehel Y. Abolafia
The Return of Bureaucracy: Managing Dispersed Knowledge in Global Finance	229	(21)
Gordon L. Clark
Nigel Thrift
Enterprise Risk Management and the Organization of Uncertainty in Financial Institutions	250	(19)
Michael Power
Managing Investors: How Financial Markets Reshaped the American Firm	269	(21)
Dirk Zorn
Frank Dobbin
Julian Dierkes
Man-shan Kwok
Nothing but Net? Networks and Status in Corporate Governance	290	(23)
Gerald Davis
Gregory Robbins
Index	313