Abstract
This article develops a new understanding of the financial centre as a unit of analysis. It draws on Pierre Bourdieu’s generative structuralism to argue that financial centres constitute fields that possess a distinctive habitus through which risk is judged. Furthermore, Douglass North’s New Institutional Economics is used to argue that this distinctive habitus is the product of a combination of "hard" and "soft" forces: economic and business structures, the role of states, social networks, and cultural factors. It pushes beyond a simple geographical understanding of the financial centre while asserting that the financial centre is indeed a critical level of analysis. Moreover, the approach taken strongly suggests the need for historians of finance to incorporate broader macro-level political, economic, social and cultural developments into their analyses.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Decision Taking, Confidence and Risk Management in Banks from Early Modernity to the 20th Century |
Editors | Korinna Schönhärl |
Place of Publication | Basingstoke |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-3-319-42076-9 |
Publication status | Published - 17 Jan 2017 |
Publication series
Name | Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance |
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Publisher | Palgrave macmillan |
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Andrew Dilley
- School of Divinity, History & Philosophy, History - Senior Lecturer
- School of Divinity, History & Philosophy, Centre for Global Security and Governance
Person: Academic