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SUMMARY:The credit crisis as a problem in the sociology of knowledge - Don
 ald Mackenzie (University of Edinburgh)
DTSTART:20100218T163000Z
DTEND:20100218T180000Z
UID:TALK22043@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alex Broadbent
DESCRIPTION:The financial markets need to be studied from the perspectives
  of the social studies of science and technology. The artefacts and techni
 cal systems they contain need to be taken seriously\, and their role as si
 tes of knowledge production needs examined. For example\, how market parti
 cipants value financial instruments is (amongst other things) an issue for
  the sociology of knowledge.\n\nThis talk will examine the role in the cur
 rent credit crisis of 'evaluation cultures' (shared beliefs\, practices\, 
 ways of calculating\, and technical systems that are employed when market 
 participants evaluate financial instruments). Employing documentary source
 s and a set of 55 predominantly oral-history interviews\, the talk will pr
 esent a historical sociology of the evaluation cultures surrounding the tw
 o categories of financial instrument crucial to the crisis (ABSs\, asset-b
 acked securities\, and CDOs\, collateralized debt obligations)\, and in pa
 rticular will discuss the evaluation of and the role played by a fateful c
 oncatenation of the two\, ABS CDOs.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, History and Philosophy of Science\, Department o
 f
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