Uncertain Futures -

Uncertain Futures

Imaginaries, Narratives, and Calculation in the Economy

Jens Beckert, Richard Bronk (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover
352 Seiten
2019
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-884680-2 (ISBN)
39,95 inkl. MwSt
Uncertain Futures considers how economists visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of uncertainty. As dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by innovation and novelty they exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced. This book questions how expectations can be formed and decisions made in spite of uncertainty.
Uncertain Futures considers how economic actors visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. It starts from the premise that dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by relentless innovation and novelty and hence exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced to measurable risk. The organizing question then becomes how economic actors form expectations and make decisions despite the uncertainty they face.

This edited volume lays the foundations for a new model of economic reasoning by showing how, in conditions of uncertainty, economic actors combine calculation with imaginaries and narratives to form fictional expectations that coordinate action and provide the confidence to act. It draws on groundbreaking research in economic sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology to present theoretically grounded empirical case studies. These demonstrate how grand narratives, central bank forward guidance, economic forecasts, finance models, business plans, visions of technological futures, and new era stories influence behaviour and become instruments of power in markets and societies. The market impact of shared calculative devices, social narratives, and contingent imaginaries underlines the rationale for a new form of narrative economics.

Jens Beckert is director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. In 2018 he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize for his work reinvigorating the social sciences with an interdisciplinary perspective, especially at the intersection of sociology and economics. His research focuses on the fields of economic sociology, sociology of inheritance, organization theory, and social theory. Richard Bronk is a Visiting Senior Fellow in the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He spent seventeen years working in the City of London and the Bank of England before teaching political economy at LSE from 2000-2007. His research now focuses on the role of imagination and language in economics, the dangers of analytical and regulatory monocultures, and the epistemology of markets.

1: Jens Beckert and Richard Bronk: An Introduction to Uncertain Futures
Section I: The Nature of Expectations in Modern Political Economies
2: Robert Boyer: Expectations, Narratives, and Socio-Economic Regimes
3: David Tuckett: Conviction Narrative Theory and Understanding Decision-Making in Economics and Finance
4: Jenny Andersson: Arctic Futures: Expectations, Interests, Claims, and the Making of Arctic Territory
Section II: The Strange World of Economic Forecasting
5: Werner Reichmann: The Interactional Foundations of Economic Forecasting
6: Olivier Pilmis: Escaping the Reality Test: How Macroeconomic Forecasters Deal with 'Errors'
7: Andrew G. Haldane: Uncertainty in Macroeconomic Modelling
Section III: The Role of Narratives and Planning in Central Banking
8: Douglas R. Holmes: A Tractable Future: Central Banks in Conversation with their Publics
9: Benjamin Braun: Central Bank Planning? Unconventional Monetary Policy and the Price of Bending the Yield Curve
Section IV: Constructing Futures in Finance
10: Elena Esposito: Predicted Uncertainty: Volatility Calculus and the Indeterminacy of the Future
11: Natalia Besedovsky: Uncertain Meanings of Risk: Calculative Practices and Risk Conceptions in Credit Rating Agencies
Section V: Managing Expectations in Innovative Business
12: Martin Giraudeau: Processing the Future: Venture Project Evaluation at American Research and Development Corporation (1946-1973)
13: Liliana Doganova: Discounting and the Making of the Future: On Uncertainty in Forest Management and Drug Development
14: Timur Ergen: The Dilemma between Aligned Expectations and Diversity in Innovation: Evidence from Early Energy Technology Policies

Erscheinungsdatum
Verlagsort Oxford
Sprache englisch
Maße 156 x 234 mm
Gewicht 528 g
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
Wirtschaft Allgemeines / Lexika
Wirtschaft Volkswirtschaftslehre Ökonometrie
ISBN-10 0-19-884680-0 / 0198846800
ISBN-13 978-0-19-884680-2 / 9780198846802
Zustand Neuware
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