An anthropologist among analysts and traders! Horacio Ortiz analyses how these "experts" state the value of companies listed on the stock exchange and reveals the contradictions and weaknesses of this activity whose issues are crucial for the economic, political and social interest and yet poorly understood . Read More
The financial industry plays an increasingly key role in all economic activities, and yet its actors and procedures remain poorly understood by the public. As an anthropologist, Ortiz thus dove into the world of analysts and fund managers and completed three, several month-long stints in a brokerage firm, in a hedge fund advisory and a multinational third-party fund management company in France and in the United States before the subprime crisis.
In the name of market efficiency, the financial industry determines the value of companies listed on the stock exchange using a standardised methodology of neo-liberal leaning that is backed by existing financial regulations. The value of companies thus becomes a 'truth' established by finance experts, making the latter the arbiters of the distribution of monetary resources on a global scale and consequently, of social justice.
The author immersed himself in the world of finance during several years, working as an analyst in financial companies in Paris and New York. His perspective on the practices and daily experiences of brokers, traders and other fund managers — at times depicted rather bluntly — demonstrates just to what extent the 'truth of the value' that they determine is problematic. In reality quite far removed from the liberal utopia to which they allude, these 'true values' are the product of many contradictory injunctions and procedures, monitored by workers who work both in competition and symbiosis, both as individuals and as company representatives.
Horacio Ortiz is a researcher at the Centre de sociologie de l’innovation, MINES ParisTech. He holds a degree from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales(EHESS), the New School for Social Research, and Sciences Po. He is currently studying the world of finance in China.
INTRODUCTION
L'industrie financière au centre d'une distribution de ressources globale
Une anthropologie politique des pratiques financières
Des enquêtes de terrain à l'ouvrage
Chapitre 1 / L'ESPACE ORGANISATIONNEL
DE LA VÉRITÉ DE LA VALEUR
Une activité commerciale et salariée
Un concept entre théorie et pratique
Des gestes quotidiens dans un espace global
Chapitre 2 / L'ÉVALUATION
COMME OPINION PERSONNELLE
L’investisseur multiple et disséminé
La personnalité évaluatrice comme effet de règles procédurales
Un agencement dans le quotidien des pratiques
Chapitre 3 / LA VÉRITÉ DE LA VALEUR
COMME RÉSULTAT DES MARCHÉS EFFICIENTS
Un concept fondamental dans les procédures d’évaluation
L’industrie financière comme espace social de l’efficience des marchés
Une justification de l’évaluation financière dans un espace global
Chapitre 4 / LA VÉRITÉ DE LA VALEUR
COMME ASSEMBLAGE POLITIQUE
Un assemblage épistémologique dans un espace social restreint
L’effet de la recherche procédurale du profit
La vérité comme réalité de la valeur : un assemblage politique
CONCLUSION
La vérité de la valeur comme pratique dans l’industrie financière
L’activité de l’industrie financière comme enjeu politique
La vérité de la valeur d’une crise à l’autre
Annexe / LEXIQUE DES PROFESSIONS ET TÂCHES COMMERCIALES RENCONTRÉES DANS L’ENQUÊTE