The Politics of Economics - 9 October 2018 - The Political Vernaculars of Value Creation

Fabian Muniesa (Mines ParisTech) Discussant: Andrew Sanchez (Cambridge) Abstract Of the many ideas that control economic reasoning and the policies that go with it, that of 'value creation' is certainly a most intriguing one. Something called 'value' is assumed to be 'created' and this essentially virtuous process is supposed to guide not only economic conduct but the orientation of the transformation of the world altogether. Making sense of the operations of this concept from the perspective of a political anthropology of finance requires an examination of its rhetorical content, of the worldviews it carries, and of the political realities it fosters. Narratives of investor confidence, of fundamental value and of uncertain future can then be interpreted as nodal elements of this pervasive political technology.