- Cfp EGOS. Sub-theme 18: Cultural Economies and Economic Cultures in the Organization of Markets. Convenors: Liz McFall, Open University, UK; Steven Kahl, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA; Joeri Mol, University of Melbourne, Australia.
- Cfp: Novos Rumos Sociológicos – NORUS.
- Cfp: BISA ‘There is no place like home?! The international political economy of housing and finance’. Chair: Johnna Montgomerie (CRESC, Manchester); Discussant: Adrienne Roberts (The University of Manchester).
- The Department of Geography, University of Leuven, Belgium, is looking for three PhD students for the research project “The Real Estate/Financial Complex”. Promoter: Manuel Aalbers.
Cfp EGOS. Sub-theme 18: Cultural Economies and Economic Cultures in the Organization of Markets. Convenors: Liz McFall, Open University, UK e.r.mcfall@open.ac.uk; Steven Kahl, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA steven.j.kahl@tuck.dartmouth.edu; Joeri Mol, University of Melbourne, Australia jmol@unimelb.edu.au.
Call for Papers
The question is culture being organized by the market or is the market being organized by culture? has been a recurring theme within the social sciences over the past decades. Two opposing views are typically presented. On the one hand, the dominant paradigm depicts economic exchange as atomistic, revolving around rational individuals with a high degree of agency. On the other hand, economic sociologists and organizational theorists offer a contrasting perspective emphasizing that markets are embedded in overarching social structures that significantly constrain individual agency (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991; Granovetter, 1973).
Between these ‘ideal type’ views there are many modified positions ranging from accounts of the contemporary dissolution of any boundary between cultural or economic activity (du Gay & Pryke, 2002; McFall, 2004), to those that complement concerns with forms of meaning, representation and sociality with the study of the technical and material forms of association (Callon & Muniesa, 2005; Latour, 2005), and to those who understand markets as amenable to the pragmatic redesign by ‘choice architects’ (Thaler & Sunstein, 2008). Significant strides have been made in our understanding of the economy/culture relation (Pryke & du Gay, 2007) since the first stirrings of the ‘cultural turn’ (Jameson, 1998), but as work in different critical and theoretical traditions proliferates across the academy substantial challenges remain. ‘Markets’ and ‘cultures’ continue to change and ‘marketization’ and ‘culturing’ continue to elude easy description.
Without lending priority to any particular perspective, we invite papers that can best advance this problematic. In conversation with existing debates, we are particularly supportive of papers that investigate whether markets can be understood on cultural terms, underscoring notions of embeddedness and cultural economy. And inversely, can cultures be understood on terms dictated by market logics (cf. Friedland & Alford, 1991)?
In doing so, we ask ourselves:
With regard to epistemology, how can markets and cultures be known (Bingham & Kahl, forthcoming)? Do academic and lay understandings sit idly side by side, do they interact, or do they collide (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006)?
What is the ontological status of the market and of culture? What is a market and what is a culture? Or should we rather talk about the becoming of markets or of cultures (cf. Linstead & Thanem, 2007)? Should they be understood as entities, assemblages and/or events (Deleuze, 1990; Roffe, 2011)? How do ‘ontological politics’ produce multiples in the realms of markets and of cultures (Law, 2011; Mol, 2004)?
How are organizations and employees affected by the process of being simultaneously ‘enculturated’ well as ‘marketized’ (Adler et al., 2008)?
How do criteria for measuring value emerge in markets and in organizations? And how do evaluation processes within markets differ from those within organizations (Mol & Wijnberg, 2011)?
What is the importance of cultures for the making of markets and what is the importance of markets for the making of cultures (Maurer, 2010)? Where do organizational cultures and/or markets end and where do consumer cultures and/or markets start?
How can we understand the recursive relationship between the markets that we study and the models that we create to describe them? How does such performativity feature in the study of culture (cf. Callon & Muniesa, 2005)?
What are the defining categories by which we understand markets and cultures (DiMaggio, 1983; 1987; Lounsbury & Rao, 2004)? Are they congruent or do market categories and cultural categories compete with each other?
Cfp: Novos Rumos Sociológicos – NORUS.
O programa de pós-graduação em sociologia da Universidade Federal de Pelotas vai lançar o seu próprio periódico chamado “Novos Rumos Sociológicos” – NORUS. A revista está com a chamada para receber artigos para comporem dois dossiês: (A) Sociedade, ciência e tecnologia: redimensionando estratégias e interações organizado por Léo Peixoto Rodrigues (UFPel); Fabrício Neves (UnB); Adriano Premebida (FDB) e (B): Sociologia Econômica e das Finanças: perspectivas contemporâneas sobre a economia, as finanças e seus atores organizado por Elaine da Silveira Leite (UFPel) e Marina de Souza Sartore (UFG). O prazo para a submissão de artigos é 20 de novembro de 2012 e a previsão de publicação é para 2013. Para maiores informações, acessem a página eletrônica da revista: http://www.revnorus.blogspot.com.br/
Qualquer dúvida entrem em contato com os editores da revista pelo e-mail: revnorus@gmail.com
CfP, a proposed IPEG panel at BISA Annual Conference in Birmingham, 20-21 June 2013: ‘There is no place like home?! The international political economy of housing and finance’
Housing markets in liberalised political economies are at the interstice between international finance and the realm of domestic politics and life. They relate to and are constituted by both domestic, micro-level, and every day practices, and the international, epochal and geopolitical process of financialisation. This has become particularly visible with the global financial crisis of 2007. The crisis has highlighted the importance of the housing market in providing growth, welfare, and underpinning the financial sector, ultimately bringing all three spheres in a close, interdependent and highly leveraged relationship. This position makes housing an especially instructive field of study, allowing to capture the multi-scalar and multi-dimensional nature of the financialisation process. Interrogating financialisation through the lenses of housing markets therefore represents a first step in transcending the ivory tower of academic studies of finance, shedding light not only on the channels through which financialisation affects the social and material reality of every day actors but also investigating the latters’ constitutive role in shaping the phenomenon in question. The papers, which capture a diverse range of empirical and theoretical approaches, ranging from Comparative Political Economy, IPE to financial geography framings, share a common purpose in their attempts to analyse, both empirically and theoretically, the differential functions and relevance of housing markets vis-a-vis financial markets on the one hand, and domestic growth and welfare politics on the other. Other questions the panel seeks to explore are: how can the centrality of housing be strategically used by everyday agents to empower themselves in the face of the pressures of financialisation? Can we discern existing trends towards de-financialised housing markets? And finally, can we propose alternative growth and welfare strategies for economies that are locked into financialised housing as a driver of growth?
Panel chair: Johnna Montgomerie (CRESC, Manchester); Discussant: Adrienne Roberts (The University of Manchester).
We welcome papers addressing any of these questions or related themes. Please send contact details, title and abstract to Mirjam Büdenbender (Mirjam.Buedenbender@gmx.net) by November 23, 2012.
The Department of Geography, University of Leuven, Belgium, is looking for three PhD students for the research project “The Real Estate/Financial Complex”. Promoter: Manuel Aalbers. Description:
Real estate and finance were at the roots of the global economic crisis that started in 2007. States and their many institutions have also been seen as complicit to the crisis. The connections between real estate (both residential and non-residential), finance and states still remain under-researched and under-theorized. Work in various political economy traditions has done a great deal of research into the connection between finance and states, but they have often ignored a crucial sector: real estate. There is also a tradition of work focusing on the interaction between real estate and states, usually concentrating on the involvement of municipalities in real estate projects. Finance is often ignored in this tradition. Moreover, this tradition has its roots in urban studies and is very micro focused, while the various political economy traditions are very macro focused. In other words, we not only need a stronger connection between finance and real estate, we also need a stronger connection between different scales: local/urban, national and global. We here propose a new metaphor that can help us to centre attention on the connection between real estate, finance and states: the real estate/financial complex, akin the military/industrial complex. Both complexes should be seen as triangles since states are also part of the equation. Three PhD students will focus on two countries each, each complementing two national mappings of the complex with two local/urban case studies. These sub-projects take a central focus on the importance of politics, geography and history, and present extensive and in-depth studies of the organization and development of the real estate/financial complex in different countries. The PhD students are expected to do literature reviews, document analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviews with key figures in real estate, finance and state, including lobby groups, think tanks and research institutes.
Key words: real estate, financialization, urban studies, political economy, economic geography; Latest application date: 2012-12-01; Financing: available; Type of Position: scholarship
Source of Funding: European Research Council; Remarks: Interested candidates holding a Master degree in any social science are invited to apply, although knowledge of urban studies and political economy/economic geography are highly recommended.
Familiarity with most of the following concepts is crucial: financialization, gentrification, megaprojects, capital switching, growth coalitions/machines, residential capitalism, de-linking real estate and place, subprime cities, lobbying, and the privatization of social housing. Applicants should be highly motivated and goal-oriented. They should have the ability to work independently as well as in a team, at KU Leuven as well as in two different research countries. The candidates should be at home with qualitative research methods, in particular in-depth interviews. In their cover letter, interested candidates should explicitly state their language abilities, research experience in different countries and international residential history. The shortlist of countries that may be included in the research include: Belgium, Brazil, China (including Hong Kong), Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, the UK, and the US. Knowledge of at least two of these countries and their languages will be important. In addition, interested candidates should be fluent in English as the research team will primarily communicate in English and papers and a doctoral thesis need to be written in English as well. Please do not include writing samples at this stage, but at the end of your cover letter you should list the titles of three (not more, not less) papers/theses that you would be able to provide in case you would be included in the shortlist for the position. Also indicate the status of each of these, e.g. term paper, submitted research paper, Master thesis. This list of three papers/theses should also be considered an indication of your interest in topics related to the research topic of this project.
Estudios de la Economía 