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Theory, Culture & Society
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Practices of Calculation

Economic Representations and Risk Management

Herbert Kalthoff

University of Konstanz, Department of History and Sociology

As recent studies in economic and financial sociology have underscored, calculation is central to economic practices. While some sociological accounts locate the performance of calculation within individual ability, networks of human agents or their cultural embeddedness, studies operating on the background of the sociology of (scientific) knowledge conceive of calculation as situated in the practice of the participants engaged, the technological tools used and their requirements. The article explores this point further, using a distinction which can be traced back to Heidegger’s notion of Gestell (enframing): the ‘calculation of something’ and the ‘calculation with something’ are analysed taking the practices of risk management departments of big international banks as an example. It is argued that, through the use of calculation tools, the corporate clients are constituted anew and that written documents which are the outcome of this process constitute a social prosthesis for remote communication taking place between subsidiaries and the headquarters of international banks.

Key Words: finance • Heidegger • representation • sociology of knowledge

Theory, Culture & Society, Vol. 22, No. 2, 69-97 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0263276405051666
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