Research Colloquium on ‘Crowd Dynamics and Financial Markets’

Research Colloquium on ‘Crowd Dynamics and Financial Markets’

16 December, 3–5 pm, Porcelaenshaven 18A, Room 3.135

Nicholas Gane, University of Warwick: ‘The Market as “Marvel”: Neoclassical Economics, Sociology and the Emergence of Neoliberalism’

This paper is concerned with the sociological foundations of neoliberalism – a market-led form of governance that seeks to inject principles of competition into the state and other social institutions. Most histories of neoliberalism see the emergence of this form of political-economic thought as a post-War development, but this paper will argue that neoliberal thought developed out of an earlier engagement with the sociology of thinkers such as Weber and Schutz. The writings of Friedrich Hayek from 1936 to 1947, in particular, were a turning point, for they broke with many of the basic principles of neoclassical economics and in so doing advanced a quite different understanding of the market to that found in Weber and in Austrian thinkers such as Mises. Hayek effectively developed an anti-social sociology through this period; one that remains influential post-crisis but which has largely escaped the attention of the discipline more generally. It will be argued that a critique of neoliberalism can proceed by formulating a response to Hayek, and that such a response should pay close attention to the epistemological (and not just political) dimensions of his work.

Nicholas Gane is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick, UK. His publications include Max Weber and Postmodern Theory (2002); The Future of Social Theory (2004); New Media: Key Concepts (with David Beer, 2008); and Max Weber and Contemporary Capitalism (2012).

The research colloquium is organized under the auspices of the Sapere Aude research project on ‘Crowd Dynamics in Financial Markets’. For further information, please contact Professor Christian Borch (cbo.lpf@cbs.dk) or visit http://info.cbs.dk/crowds.