The Sociology of Financial Markets

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 examine who the actors within them are, how they operate, within which networks, and how these networks are structured. 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 financial markets 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 in point. 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.

ISBN 0199296928   Pages 336 ISBN13 9780199296927 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press   Weight (grammes) 517 Imprint Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Height (mm) 233 Publication date 04 May 2006   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress HM548   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY 332   Academic level Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22

Introduction; SECTION I: INSIDE FINANCIAL MARKETS; 1. The Embeddedness of Electronic Markets: The Case of Global Capital Markets; 2. How Are Global Markets Global? The Architecture of a Flow World; 3. How a Super-Portfolio Emerges: Long Term Capital Management and the Sociology of Arbitrage; 4. How to Recognize Opportunities: Heterarchical Search in a Trading Room; 5. Emotions on the Trading Floor: Social and Symbolic Expressions; 6. Women in Financial Services: Fiction and More Fiction; SECTION II: THE AGE OF THE INVESTOR; 7. The Investor as a Cultural Figure of Global Capitalism; 8. The Values and Beliefs of European Investors; 9. Conflicts of Interest in the US Brokerage Industry; SECTION III: FINANCE AND GOVERNANCE; 10. Interpretive Politics at the Federal Reserve; 11. The Return of Bureaucracy: Managing Dispersed Knowledge in Global Finance; 12. Enterprise Risk Management and the Organization of Uncertainty in Financial Institutions; 13. Managing Investors: How Financial Markets Reshaped the American Firm; 14. Nothing But Net? Networks and Status in Corporate Governance

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