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Markets on Trial Workshop

October 23-25

Location: Evanston, IL

Organizers: Michael Lounsbury and Paul Hirsch

The current global financial crisis, visibly catalyzed by the rapid drop in securitized mortgage valuations in the summer 2007, has entailed a dramatic decrease in the availability of credit, wealth destruction linked to stock market valuations, the failure of banks and insurance companies, numerous other bankruptcies, the growth of governmental intervention, a deep and protracted recession, and a general rise in the uncertainty of Capitalistic institutions.  It is in unsettled times such as these that hegemonic and taken-for-granted ideas and institutions may be challenged, and new alternatives cultivated.  In the context of the early 21st century, it is the hegemonic ideals of markets, market-based solutions, and the ideology of neoliberalism that is on trial.

This workshop aims to bring together some of the most prominent economic sociologists to conceptualize various dimensions of the current crisis as a way to take stock of how economic sociology more generally might be able to address such calamities, as well as highlight how the sociological imagination might be engaged to contribute to public policy and the construction of alternative institutional configurations to guide society and economy.  Papers will range from more historical approaches that examine the sources of the crisis to more detailed archaeologies of how the crisis has unfolded and been managed.  These papers will be published in a special two volume edition of Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

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Tentative Schedule for Workshop

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Timeline for Paper Development:

- October 23-25 Workshop

- December 15  Written Comments to Authors

- February 28, 2010  Revised Versions of Papers Due

- Summer/Fall 2010  Volume Published

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