Taking the Floor, published in September by Princeton University Press.
“Researcher Argues for Preserving Floor Trading”
“Daniel Beunza has spent the last 13 years scrutinizing the arcane language, rites of passage and rituals of an insular tribe imperiled by advances of the modern world. His conclusion: Save the floor traders.”
Read the full article by Bradley Hope on the Wall Street Journal website.
“Can Ethnography Improve the Culture of Finance?”
Whether it is the link between millionaire bonuses and reckless trades or between financial models and gigantic losses, the role of financial culture in wrecking the U.S. economy in 2008 has become widely established. Social scientists have been on the frontlines, researching and making this conclusion plain: see, for instance, Mitchel Abolafia’s studies of bond traders, or anthropologist Karen Ho’s vivid descriptions of Goldman Sachs’s recruitment at Princeton.
Continue reading ““Can Ethnography Improve the Culture of Finance?””
Presentation at the London Quant Group
Here is the PowerPoint presentation I presented at the London Quant Group.
Link: Pdf Presentation
“Investing differently: a new challenge for responsibility in finance?”
Daniel Beunza and Annalivia Lacoste
In this conversation, Daniel Beunza exchanges with Annalivia Lacoste about his vision of the banking managerial culture that served as a catalyst for the recent financial collapse and defends responsible investment as a way to radically transform the future of the financial services industry.
See the full text at Debating Innovation 2012 Vol. 2(2): 53-58
“Crisis, heterarchic structures and proto-performativity” (in Spanish)
Here is a link to an podcast interview with Ignacio Farias from the Spanish language blog “Estudios de la Economía”:
“Habermas in the boardroom? Evidence from shareholder engagement”
Can dialogue be established between civil society and corporations on social and environmental questions such as climate change? Our study of shareholder engagement at Ford and General Motors suggests that dialogue is possible and socially-conscious shareholders might be able to drive positive change in corporations on climate change.
Continue reading ““Habermas in the boardroom? Evidence from shareholder engagement””
“Enter the Economic Sociologists”
“Like out-of-control Godzillas, financial markets have become monsters that eat everything. Why do they do this, and how can they be controlled? Sociologists want to know.
Most analyses of the current economic morass start and end with finance. Maybe it was unruly lending to home borrowers, or maybe it was new financial instruments that we didn’t understand but now must love — just like Dr. Strangelove and the bomb. Many now believe that capitalism has undergone a “Copernican revolution” in which financial markets are now the core of our economic system — giving the boot to the centrality of corporations.