On May 21st, Sabine Montagne and Fabian Muniesa set up at the University Paris-Dauphine a joint workshop entitled “Sociology of finance and investment figures”, involving both the CSI and the IRISSO. The project of an institutional collaboration between the CSI and the IRISSO was decided in February 2013, at the conclusion of a discussion about their respective projects and their common research interests, and within the framework of the global PSL Research University project.

Dominique Méda, Director of the IRISSO, and Alexandre Mallard, Director of the CSI, reaffirmed the wish of both laboratories to organize more formal meetings in the objective of deepening the exchanges on the basis of a presentation of the works of their respective teams.

Sociology of finance, and in particular the urgent issue of the “figures of investment”, concern a research area and questionings that both laboratories have already investigated in common. Sabine Montagne and Horacio Ortiz are the editors of two special issues of the journal Sociétés Contemporaines dedicated to a sociology of “financial agency” (n° 92 and 93). In their introduction, they present the approach favored in this publication as follows:

“This is about deconstructing the notion of “the investor” […]. Rather than just considering that there are “investors”, fully invested within their investing mission, we explore, through a set of empirical studies, how investment decisions are taken as the outcome of a wide array of relations established between different types of actors. This division of financial labor is grounded in a compound of devices (juristic, technical and representational) which constitute what we call “financial agency” — a notion quite divergent from the liberal, economic view that reduces the subject matter to a bilateral exchange between an seller and a purchaser.” (from S. Montagne & H.Ortiz, 2013, “Sociologie de l’agence financière: enjeux et perspectives”, Sociétés Contemporaines, 93, p. 7).

In the workshop, discussions were organized around four papers. The first two ones were dealing with the publication of the special issues of Sociétés Contemporaines :

• Liliana Doganova (CSI), « Décompter le futur : la formule des flux actualisés et le manager-investisseur » / (De)valuing the Future: The Discounted Cash Flow Formula and the Investing Manager.

• Benjamin Lemoine (IRISSO), « Les « dealers » de la dette souveraine : politique des transactions entre banques et État dans la grande distribution des emprunts français » / “Sovereign Bonds Dealers. Politics of the Transactions Between Banks and State Regarding Government Bonds Sales and Distribution”.

The discussion continued around two papers on works in progress dealing with finance:

• Marlène Benquet (IRISSO) presented a project in which she is currently taking part, « Fixer les prix : sociologie de la production des prix des entreprises par les fonds d’investissement » / “Price-setting: sociology of the production of the prices of companies by investment funds”.

• Jean-Baptiste Pons (CSI) proposed to discuss the first lines of thought his current doctoral research work has aroused: « Gouverner l’invisible : l’offshorisation accidentelle des Euromarchés français » / “Governing the invisible: the accidental offshorisation of the French Euromarkets”.

The purpose of the meeting was to become acquainted with some works and joint initiatives and to discuss them. In the longer-term, the undertaken work consists in considering the possibility of working together on the sociology of finance or the analysis of public action, which are parts of current common interests, but also to launch ideas for new projects. Both laboratories have made an important contribution to the constitution of a new field of research: the “social studies of finance”. Joint discussions like those led in the workshop are desirable and fruitful for its development.

Photo : Workshop « Sociology of finance and investment figures », Université Paris-Dauphine, May 21, 2014. Photo : F. Paterson.