TY - JOUR
T1 - Financial knowledge, documents, and the structures of financial activities
AU - PREDA, Alex
N1 - This article has greatly benefited from the comments of the anonymous reviewers, as well as from discussions with Karin Knorr Cetina, Herbert Kalthoff, and Frank Mars. My thanks to all of them. The interviews in Department C have been conducted together with Herbert Kalthoff. I am also indebted to the members of the bank departments discussed here; without their support and cooperation and interest in my project, this research would not have been possible. This article is dedicated to the memory of Frank Mars, who has conducted one of the first ethnographic studies of stock analysts.
PY - 2002/4
Y1 - 2002/4
N2 - Starting from participant observation and interviews conducted in several European banks, the article examines how financial knowledge is constituted in the process of producing documents like research reports, analyses, and newsletters. The core argument is that documents act as organizational devices, with the help of which relationships are created, maintained, and managed across various contexts. In this perspective, the production of financial reports, analyses, and newsletters creates (1) knowledge-based networks of social relationships in which financial action is embedded and (2) stable temporal structures, thus ensuring the continuity of financial activities. On these grounds, the author argues here that knowledge-generating processes should be taken into account as an essential dimension of the structural embeddedness of financial action.
AB - Starting from participant observation and interviews conducted in several European banks, the article examines how financial knowledge is constituted in the process of producing documents like research reports, analyses, and newsletters. The core argument is that documents act as organizational devices, with the help of which relationships are created, maintained, and managed across various contexts. In this perspective, the production of financial reports, analyses, and newsletters creates (1) knowledge-based networks of social relationships in which financial action is embedded and (2) stable temporal structures, thus ensuring the continuity of financial activities. On these grounds, the author argues here that knowledge-generating processes should be taken into account as an essential dimension of the structural embeddedness of financial action.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036111725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0891241602031002004
DO - 10.1177/0891241602031002004
M3 - Journal Article (refereed)
AN - SCOPUS:0036111725
SN - 0891-2416
VL - 31
SP - 207
EP - 239
JO - Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
JF - Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
IS - 2
ER -