Adopting an historical perspective, we propose to study the way recurrent debates regarding the “excessive speculation” category on financial derivatives markets, take various shapes at different points in time. We consider that history does not repeat itself, at least not in the exact way....

In this paper, we examine how categorization is resisted. We analyze the way organizations draw on industry registers to resist or adapt to changes that will potentially alter the definition and nature of the markets in which they compete. We approach this question through a qualitative study of...

The recent financial crisis has triggered radical criticism against financial markets. In this paper, we propose to analyse this criticism in the perspective drawn by Boltanski and Thevenot (1991/2006) around the notion of justification. We see the main debate as opposing the critics and the...

We take advantage of the regulatory change planned to transform financial OTC markets into organized markets to study the processes and the means by which powerful actors resist categorization and contest a certain vision of the market. Specifically analyzing the documents produced by the MiFID...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the social construction of a new financial market. A longitudinal qualitative study is used to describe the development of the market for credit derivatives over the 1996-2005 period. Special attention is given to the fact that the market is a transnational...

In this paper, we examine the process of risk commodification involved in the creation of a market for weather derivatives in Europe. We approach this issue through an in-depth qualitative study in which we focus on the commensuration process by which promoters try to draw weather risk into the...