This article uses an analysis of social studies of finance to explore Andrew Abbott’s ideas about how we construct ‘new’ social theory. Drawing on Abbott, it is argued that social studies of finance tend as much towards the recycling of existing conjecture as the presentation of markedly novel argument. Yet Abbott’s position also questions such potential critique by suggesting that theoretical recycling and recombination represent ‘normal’, and often creative, academic behaviour.
AbbottA (2001) Chaos of Disciplines. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
2.
AbbottA (2004) Methods of Discovery: Heuristics for the Social Sciences. New York: WW Norton.
3.
AbbottA (2016) Processual Sociology. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
4.
Al-AmoudiALatsisJ (2017) The limits of ontological critique: From judgmental rationality to justification. Cambridge Journal of Economics41(5): 1303–1321.
5.
ArcherMS (1995) Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
BarryASlaterD (2002) An interview with Michel Callon. Economy and Society31(2): 285–306.
7.
BentonT (1981) Realism and social science: Some comments on Roy Bhaskar’s ‘The Possibility of Naturalism’. Radical Philosophy27: 13–21.
8.
BernsteinRJ (1979) The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory. London: Methuen.
9.
BeunzaDStarkD (2012) From dissonance to resonance: Cognitive interdependence in quantitative finance. Economy and Society41(3): 383–417.
10.
BhaskarR (1978) A Realist Theory of Science. Brighton: Harvester.
11.
BlokA (2011) Clash of the eco-sciences: Carbon marketization, environmental NGOs and performativity as politics. Economy and Society40(3): 451–476.
12.
BourdieuP (2005) The Social Structures of the Economy. Cambridge: Polity.
13.
BurninghamKCooperG (1999) Being constructive: Social constructionism and the environment. Sociology33(2): 297–316.
14.
ÇalişkanKCallonM (2009) Economization, part 1: Shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economizaton. Economy and Society38(3): 369–398.
15.
ÇalişkanKCallonM (2010) Economization, part 2: A research programme for the study of markets. Economy and Society39(1): 1–32.
16.
CallonM (ed.) (1998) The Laws of the Markets. London: Blackwell.
17.
CallonM (2005) Why virtualism paves the way to political impotence: A reply to Daniel Miller’s critique ofThe Laws of the Markets. Economic Sociology: European Electronic Newsletter6(2): 3–20.
18.
CallonM (2007a) What does it mean to say that economics is performative? In: MackenzieDMuniesaFSiuL (eds) Do Economists Make Markets: On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 311–357.
19.
CallonM (2007b) An essay on the growing contribution of economic markets to the proliferation of the social. Theory Culture & Society24(7–8): 139–163.
CollinsR (2006) How to find what to solve. Contemporary Sociology35(1): 9–10.
23.
DidierE (2007) Do statistics ‘perform’ the economy? In: MackenzieDMuniesaFSiuL (eds) Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 276–310.
24.
EliasN (1994) The Civilizing Process. Oxford: Blackwell.
25.
FineB (2003) Callonistics: A disentanglement. Economy and Society32(3): 478–484.
26.
FrickelSGrossN (2005) A general theory of scientific/intellectual movements. American Sociological Review70(2): 204–232.
27.
FriedmanM (1953) The methodology of positive economics. In: FriedmanMEssays in Positive Economics. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 5–48.
28.
GranovetterM (1985) Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology91(3): 481–510.
29.
HawkinsG (2011) Packaging water: Plastic bottles as market and public devices. Economy and Society40(4): 534–552.
30.
Knorr CetinaK (2005) How are global markets global? The architecture of a flow world. In: Knorr CetinaKPredaA (eds) The Sociology of Financial Markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 38–61.
31.
LatourB (1999) For David Bloor… and beyond: A reply to David Bloor’s ‘Anti-Latour’. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science30(1): 113–129.
32.
LawA (2014) Social Theory for Today: Making Sense of Social Worlds. London: SAGE.
33.
LawsonT (2003) Reorienting Economics. New York: Routledge.
34.
MackenzieD (2004) The big, bad wolf and the rational market: Portfolio insurance, the 1987 crash and the performativity of economics. Economy and Society33(3): 303–334.
35.
MackenzieD (2006) An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
36.
MackenzieDHardieI (2009) Assembling an economic actor. In: MackenzieDMaterial Markets: How Economic Agents Are Constructed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 37–62.
37.
MackenzieDMilloY (2003) Constructing a market, performing theory: The historical sociology of a financial derivatives exchange. American Journal of Sociology109(1): 107–145.
38.
MackenzieDMuniesaFSiuL (eds) (2007) Do Economists Make Markets: On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
39.
MillerD (2002) Turning Callon the right way up. Economy and Society31(2): 218–233.
40.
MillerD (2005) Reply to Michel Callon. Economic Sociology: European Electronic Newsletter6(3): 3–13.
41.
MillerPRoseN (2008) Governing the Present. Cambridge: Polity.
42.
MirowskiPNik-KhahE (2007) Markets made flesh: Performativity, and a problem in science studies, augmented with consideration of the FCC auctions. In: MackenzieDMuniesaFSiuL (eds) Do Economists Make Markets: On the Performativity of Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 190–224.
43.
MouzelisN (1995) Sociological Theory, What Went Wrong? Diagnosis and Remedies. London: Routledge.
44.
MukhopadhyayB (2014) Taking Callon to Calcutta: Did economist-administrators make market in the colony?Economy and Society43(2): 183–210.
45.
MulkayM (1969) Some aspects of cultural growth in the natural sciences. Social Research36(1): 22–52.
46.
NewtonT (1999) Power, subjectivity and British industrial and organizational sociology: The relevance of the work of Norbert Elias. Sociology33(2): 411–440.
47.
NewtonT (2003) Crossing the great divide: Time, nature and the social. Sociology37(3): 433–457.
48.
NewtonT (2007) Nature and Sociology. London: Routledge.
49.
OsborneTRoseN (1999) Do the social sciences create phenomena? The case of public opinion research. British Journal of Sociology50(3): 367–396.
50.
PaineAB (2004) Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835–1910. Urbana, IL: Project Gutenberg. Available at: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2988 (accessed 1 August 2018).
51.
RoseNMillerP (1992) Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology43(2): 173–205.
52.
SchönD (1963) The Displacement of Concepts. London: Tavistock.
53.
SismondoS (1993) Some social constructions. Social Studies of Science23(3): 515–553.
54.
SlaterD (2002) From calculation to alienation: Disentangling economic abstractions. Economy and Society31(2): 234–249.
55.
SmithR (2005) Does reflexivity separate the human sciences from the natural sciences?History of the Human Sciences18(4): 1–25.
56.
ThomasWIThomasDS (1928) The Child in America. New York: Knopf.
57.
TonkissF (2006) Is economic sociology ‘ready’ for globalization?Economic Sociology: European Electronic Newsletter7(3): 3–7.
58.
WardeA (2017) Consumption: A Sociological Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
