samedi 23 mars 2013

Where do investors come from?

The Hamburg University recently hosted a two day workshop about the sociology of financial markets, organized jointly by two sections of the German Society for Sociology (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Soziologie), the section for economic sociology and the section for organizations sociology. There, I was lucky enough to present an ethnographic paper called "Financial Investment and Social Division of Labor. Conditions of Realization of a Financial Institution". In this paper, I show how the figure of the investor as a speculator managing a "balanced whole" comes about.

Spéculer pour autrui dans un monde incertain. Comment les investisseurs professionnels évaluent les gérants d'actifs financiers

Jeudi 20 mars 2013, j'ai soutenu à l'Université de Reims ma thèse de sociologie, intitulée: "Spéculer pour autrui dans un monde incertain. Comment les investisseurs professionnels évaluent les gérants d'actifs financiers". En plus de mes directeur et directrice de thèse, Éric Brian et Danielle Potocki-Malicet, Olivier Godechot et Christian Walter complétaient un jury présidé par Philippe Steiner. La discussion de ma thèse a été très constructive et je n'étais pas le moins intéressé de tous.

The evaluation of asset managers by professional investors.

On Thursday, March 20th 2013, I defended my PhD dissertation at the University of Reims. Alongside with my supervisors, Éric Brian and Danielle Potocki-Malicet, the members of the committee were Olivier Godechot, Philippe Steiner and Christian Walter. I was honored that these prominent social scientists had thoroughly studied my dissertation. Their insightful comments, critics, and questions lead to a very interesting discussion of which I am sure to profit a lot.