1st Edition

Finance at Work

Edited By Valérie Boussard Copyright 2018
    280 Pages
    by Routledge

    280 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In the collective psyche, a financier is a capitalist. In managerial capitalism, the notion of the ‘manager’ emerged, and the role of the manager was distinct from the role of the ‘owner’. Financial capitalism is similarly underpinned by financiers who are not the holders of the financial assets they buy, sell, trade or advise upon.





    Finance at Work explores the world of financiers, be they finance-oriented CEOs, CFOs, financial journalists, mergers and acquisitions’ advisors or wealth managers. Part I investigates the professional trajectories of members of corporate boards and financialisation as the dissemination of financial logic outside its primary ‘iron cage’; Part II responds by studying financiers at work within financial occupations or financial operations involving external actors; while Part III pursues the issue of financial boundaries by seeking out the way financial logic crosses these boundaries. Part IV takes back the hypothesis of differentiations within finance presented in Part I, and analyses the internal boundaries of asset management, wealth management and leveraged buyout (LBO) acquisitions.





    This book is essential reading for researchers and academics within the field of finance who aim to understand the ‘spread of finance’ in contemporary societies.

    Contents



    List of Figures



    List of Tables



    Notes on Contributors



    Foreword



    Acknowledgements



    Introduction: Financiers at work, financialisation on the march



    Valérie Boussard





    PART I The boundaries of finance: Exclusionary process, social closure and inner regulation





    Introduction: Interrogating financialization as an analytic



    Karen Ho





    Chapter 1 Let’s make the company a bunch of figures: Professional representations in mergers and acquisitions firms



    Valérie Boussard and Marie-Anne Dujarier





    Chapter 2 Matching the market: Calibration and the working practices of quants



    Taylor Spears





    Chapter 3 Buying it: Financialisation through socialisation



    Natascha van der Zwan





    Chapter 4 Financial logic and bankers’ institutional entrepreneurship: The politics of the "zombies" debate in bankruptcy proceedings at the Commercial Court of Paris (2000–2005)



    Emmanuel Lazega, Lise Mounier and Sylvan Lemaire



    PART II



    Passing through boundaries: Financiers as intermediaries in conversion to financial logics





    Introduction: Financialising economic activities



    Donald MacKenzie





    Chapter 5 The financialization of the private wealth of farmers: Is it the work of the banks?



    Gilles Laferté and Abdoul Diallo





    Chapter 6 Financial backlash: When local bankers face social protest



    Quentin Ravelli





    Chapter 7 The assetisation of South African farmland: The role of finance and brokers



    Antoine Ducastel and Ward Anseeuw





    PART III



    Crossing boundaries: Individual careers as vehicles for financialisation





    Introduction: The financialisation of finance: The transformation of the French financial eli

    Biography

    Valérie Boussard is Professor of Sociology and Head of the Department of Sociology at the Paris Nanterre University, France. Her works are focused on the managerialisation and financialisation of contemporary firms through the analysis of professional and occupational groups which take part in such dynamics.