Finance at Work

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.

About the editor
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.

CONTENTS

Foreword
Frank Dobbin

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Financiers at work, financialisation on the march, p. 1
Valérie Boussard

PART I The boundaries of finance: Exclusionary process, social closure and inner regulation, p. 23

Introduction: Interrogating financialization as an analytic, p. 25
Karen Ho

Chapter 1 Let’s make the company a bunch of figures: Professional representations in mergers and acquisitions firms, p. 29
Valérie Boussard and Marie-Anne Dujarier

Chapter 2 Matching the market: Calibration and the working practices of quants, p. 42
Taylor Spears

Chapter 3 Buying it: Financialisation through socialisation, p. 57
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), p. 70
Emmanuel Lazega, Lise Mounier and Sylvan Lemaire

PART II Passing through boundaries: Financiers as intermediaries in conversion to financial logics, p. 87

Introduction: Financialising economic activities, p. 89
Donald MacKenzie

Chapter 5 The financialization of the private wealth of farmers: Is it the work of the banks?, p. 92
Gilles Laferté and Abdoul Diallo

Chapter 6 Financial backlash: When local bankers face social protest, p. 108
Quentin Ravelli

Chapter 7 The assetisation of South African farmland: The role of finance and brokers, p. 123
Antoine Ducastel and Ward Anseeuw

PART III Crossing boundaries: Individual careers as vehicles for financialisation, p. 137

Introduction: The financialisation of finance: The transformation of the French financial elite, p. 139
Sabine Montagne

Chapter 8 The second financialisation in France, or how executives and directors with unchanged financial careers promoted a new conception of control, p. 142
Pierre François and Claire Lemercier

Chapter 9 Financialisation through the trajectories of business school graduates in France, p. 156
Valérie Boussard and Simon Paye

Chapter 10 "I didn’t leave financial journalism, I left classical journalism": Careers and commitments of French financial journalists at the time of financialisation, p. 175
Antoine Machut

PART IV Internal boundaries: Diversity, segmentation, stratification within financial occupations, p. 189

Introduction: Is sociology of finance a general sociology?, p. 191
Olivier Godechot

Chapter 11 Early careers in portfolio and wealth management: The roles of class, race and gender in occupational segmentations, p. 194
Stéphanie Mignot-Gérard, Constance Perrin-Joly, François Sarfati and Nadège Vezinat

Chapter 12 Managing fortunes and privacy: Professional rhetoric and boundaries within wealth management, p. 210
Camille Herlin-Giret

Chapter 13 The duality of the LBO field, p. 223
Fabien Foureault

References
Index