When: November 1-2, 2019
Where: University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Invited speakers:
– Eyja Brynjarsdóttir (University of Iceland)
– Francesco Guala (Milan)
– Uskali Mäki (Helsinki)
– J.P. Smit (Stellenbosch)

Deadline: Please submit an abstract before June 15 to r.d.doody@rug.nl.
Number of words: 1,000. A limited number of submissions will be accepted for presentation. Full papers are due on October 1, 2019.
The Journal of Social Ontology (JSO) will publish a special issue dedicated to papers presented at this conference.

Topic. Money used to be a simple thing in practice: a set of coins and notes. It was of course more complicated in theory, and scholars throughout history have discussed what it is that makes those coins and notes into money: certain natural properties (that are inherent in gold or silver) or certain social properties (being generally accepted and used or being backed by the state).

While these discussions continue, over the last few decades money has also become more complicated in practice. Besides the old coins and notes, we now have electronic money of various sorts, including a large array of digital currencies such as Bitcoin. This is a good time to take the age-old philosophical discussions to a new and more complex level.

Some of the puzzles that new forms of money raise are:

• How can money have a virtual existence?
• Can the institution of money function without state support and if so how?
• Is it possible to develop a unified theory of commodity, fiat and electronic money?

The ontological issues here often lie close to normative issues and debates. For example,

• Is there a moral right to choose whatever currency one wants?
• Will new forms of money eventually violate the public’s trust in stability and justice?

This conference brings together experts on the ontology, economics, ethics and politics of money to develop novel answers to questions such as these.

Organizing institutions:
– Financial Ethics Research Group of the University of Gothenburg
– Department of Financial Economics of the Faculty of Economics and Business
– Centre for Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) of the University of Groningen

Organizing committee: Ryan Doody, Frank Hindriks, Joakim Sandberg

Location: University of Zurich, Switzerland
Date: September 9-11, 2019
Website: https://urlproxy.sunet.se/canit/urlproxy.php?_q=aHR0cHM6Ly9zb3Vsb2ZlY29ub21pY3MyMDE5LndlZWJseS5jb20%3D&_s=eHNham9h&_c=c2b556fe&_r=Z3Utc2U%3D

List of confirmed invited speakers

• Erik Angner (Stockholm University)
• Alvin Birdi (University of Bristol)
• Beatrice Cherrier (CNRS & THEMA, University of Cergy Pontoise)
• Kevin Hoover (Duke University)
• Andreas Ortmann (University of South Wales)
• Don Ross (University of Cork)
• (additional speakers to be confirmed)

The occasion for this conference is the 10-year passing of the global financial crisis in 2007-08. The emphasis lies in particular on debates that have sparked or revived issues concerning the main constituents of the ‘soul of economics’ and have provoked new questions about the nature of this soul. More specifically, we focus mainly on questions that have been raised within but also outside the economics profession about some of the constituents of this soul, namely the discipline’s theoretical foundations, the desirability of old and new modeling tools, the role of empirical analysis in economics, and the usefulness of research programs such as behavioral economics, among many others. We furthermore address questions the crisis has provoked concerning the lack of public trust in economics and how to regain it.

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Venue: Stift Klosterneuburg (Klosterneuburg, Austria)
Date: November 22-23, 2019

The Department of Finance at University of Vienna, in cooperation with the Saint Anselm College Center for Ethics in Business and Governance, NH, USA, and the University of St. Andrews Centre for Responsible Banking & Finance, St. Andrews, Scotland, announces a call for proposals for an interdisciplinary conference on the Data & Ethics in times of the industrial revolution 4.0.

The accelerating digitalization brings up new challenges across various areas such economics, finance, medicine, biology, technology, or energy. These challenges come along with ethical questions that arise within affected disciplines, e.g. questions from cyber-security, privacy issues, job-security, shifts in economic frameworks, to technological progress in biology and the use of big data. Moreover, the tensions between efficiency, security and freedom are moving to the core of societal reform.

The goal of this conference is to bring together ethicists, economists, technological experts, and business leaders to comprehensively examine not only the political, economic and technological impact of big data, but also how big data can be used responsibly to the global benefit of society.

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FSN 2018: Futures of finance and society
University of Edinburgh, 6-7 December

Organisers: Nathan Coombs, Tod Van Gunten
Keynotes: Donald MacKenzie, Annelise Riles, Gillian Tett
Sponsors: Edinburgh Futures Institute/University of Edinburgh

Ten years on from the global financial crisis, the settlement between finance and society remains ambiguous. Regulation has been tightened in traditional areas like banking, against a backdrop of fiscal austerity and the proliferation of new monies, financial platforms and investment vehicles. Building on the success of our previous ‘Intersections of finance and society’ conferences, ‘Futures of finance and society’ asks what new social, organisational and political forms are emerging and what direction they should take.

This two-day event, based at the University of Edinburgh’s historic Medical Quad, aims to deepen dialogue between the diverse disciplines contributing to the field of ‘finance and society’ studies. It seeks to develop new synergies between political, sociological, historical, and philosophical perspectives. In addition to providing a venue for presenting ongoing theoretical research, contributors are invited to propose and debate potential solutions for improving financial stability, expanding financial inclusion, and mitigating inequalities associated with financialisation.

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Maastricht, the Netherlands, September 5-6, 2018

Inaugural Conference of the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment
Hosted by the European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE), Maastricht University School of Business and Economics, The Netherlands

Keynote Speakers:
Alex Edmans (London Business School)
Tima Bansal (Ivey Business School)

The Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI), a new network of global research universities established to promote rigorous and highly impactful academic research on sustainable finance and investment, is holding its inaugural conference at the European Centre for Corporate Engagement (ECCE) at Maastricht University School of Business and Economics. The conference, which is entitled “Managing and Financing Responsible Businesses”, will host papers on sustainability with major contributions to complementary disciplines such as finance, accounting, management, strategy and development economics.

The Conference Committee encourages submissions of thought-provoking working papers with either theoretical, empirical, or methodological and research-design contributions. Examples of topics include:

• The business of business:  profit, purpose, and alternative organizational forms
• Making sustainability an integral part of companies: implications for strategy, management, finance & accounting
• Climate change: implications for businesses and institutional investors
• The role of corporate governance mechanisms and active ownership in promoting sustainability
• Impact investing: measuring social impact alongside business results
• Behavioural factors affecting individuals and the sustainability of markets
• Philanthropy and effective altruism
• Big data, FinTech and financial innovation for sustainability
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Deadline for Paper Submission: April 30, 2018

For more information visit the conference website

XIX International Sociological Association, World Congress (Toronto 2018)

Money, Capital, and Modern Life: Building Conceptual Bridges Between Marx and Simmel

The year 2018 marks the 200^th anniversary of Karl Marx’s birth and the 100^th anniversary of Georg Simmel’s death. This occasion presents a timely opportunity to reflect on the relation between their works.

The relevance of Marx’s writings to Simmel’s oeuvre is often alluded to, but the precise extent of this influence still calls for further exploration. The continuities are most striking at the level of the diagnosis of modern society: Marx’s analyses of alienation, commodity fetishism, and capital’s quantifying and accelerating tendencies are not only critically discussed but also expanded in Simmel’s investigations of the paradoxes of modern culture, to the point that the latter’s work could appear to a contemporary Continue reading →