One of the most interesting empirical data about behaviour towards risk comes from sociological and anthropological research on financial trading, as aptly summarized by the chapters by Preda and Zaloom in the Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance. This information allows for a phenomenology of risk taking in an almost laboratory environment. There are... READ MORE

The central argument in Beckert’s book (see previous blog post) is that modern capitalism systematically generates uncertainty, and even builds on uncertainty as opportunity, and that people deal with this uncertainty by means of creating, mobilizing and relying on fictions in order to be able to act in a reasonable way. I add the term... READ MORE

Summer time gives you the opportunity to read good books. I am now reading Jens Beckert’s new book . I will present some thoughts on it in following blogs. Now I wish to concentrate on one fundamental point that is not specific to this book. Beckert’s book is about the role of time and expectations... READ MORE