Section: Sociology

Alexandru Preda

Name
Dr Alexandru Preda
Organisation
Sociology, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
5.06 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
Telephone
+44 (0)131 650 4052
E-Mail
Research Interests
Studies of interaction orders,economic sociology,Sociology of knowledge and science,Sociology of technology
URL
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/sociology/preda_alexandru

Qualifications

  • BA (Philosophy, Bucharest),
  • Dr. rer. soc. summa cum laude (Sociology, Bielefeld),
  • Habil. (Sociology, Konstanz)

Office hours

Mondays, 4-5pm

Wednesdays 4-5pm

 

Research interests

  • Decision-making and cognitive processes in online anonymous markets
  • The interaction order of anonymous electronic transactions
  • The public understanding of finance
  • Forms of charisma in economic life
  • Strategic behavior in markets

ESRC-funded research project: Technology, Action and Cognition in Online Anonymous Markets: A Sociological Study of Non-institutional Traders (RES 062-23-1204)

Recent technological advances have widened access to real time financial transactions beyond the organizational settings of trading floors in established financial institutions. Trading can be now conducted from the kitchen or from a high street cafe: this has opened the possibility for many laypeople to engage in financial trading.  With that, financial actors have apparently come closer to the model of  dispersed, calculating individuals making choices based on their strategies. But what does it specifically mean to make decisions and develop strategies in online anonymous markets? Based on the collection and analysis of naturally occurring data, the project investigates the cognitive processes which embed decision-making and planning in online financial markets.

please click here for further information


 

 

PhD Supervision

  • Studies of interaction orders
  • Economic sociology
  • Sociology of knowledge and science
  • Sociology of technology


I welcome students interested in doing research in economic sociology, sociological theory, microstudies of interaction orders, as well as sociology of knowledge. I am also interested in issues like online and offline gambling, strategic behaviour, decision making in competitive situations. Ongoing PhD projects include work on the role of storytelling in financial transactions, recruitment practices in investment banking, and chains of control in the Chinese milk industry, among others.
 

 

 

Selected Publications

Books

Framing Finance: The Boundaries of Markets and Modern Capitalism (University of Chicago Press, 2009)

Reviewed in Journal of Economic History, Canadian Journal of Sociology, Technology & Culture, Journal of International Sociology, Choice, European Economic Sociology Newsletter.

Information, Knowledge, and Economic Life: An Introduction to the Sociology of Markets, (Oxford University Press, 2009)

AIDS, Rhetoric, and Medical Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 2004)

The Sociology of Financial Markets (co-edited with Karin Knorr Cetina, Oxford University Press, 2004)

 

forthcoming publications

 

work in progress

Life in the Market. Self, Groups and Communities on Electronic Trading Platforms (book in progress for University of Chicago Press)

Handbook of the Sociology of Finance (co-edited with Karin Knorr Cetina), Oxford University Press (in preparation)

 

 

 

 

Recent articles

'Brief Encounters: Calculation and the Interaction Order of Anonymous Electronic Markets', Accounting, Organizations and Society 2009, 34/5:675-693.

'The Temporalization of Financial Markets: From Network to Flow' (with Karin Knorr Cetina), Theory, Culture & Society 2007, 24/7-8: 116-138.

'The Sociological Approach to Financial Markets', Journal of Economic Issues 2007, 21/3: 506-533.

'Socio-technical Agency in Financial Markets: The Case of the Stock Ticker', Social Studies of Science 2006, 36/5: 753-782.

Topics interested in supervising

I welcome students interested in doing research in economic sociology, sociological theory, microstudies of interaction orders, as well as sociology of knowledge. I am also interested in issues like online and offline gambling, strategic behaviour, decision making in competitive situations. Ongoing PhD projects include work on the role of storytelling in financial transactions, recruitment practices in investment banking, and chains of control in the Chinese milk industry, among others.

If you are interested in being supervised by Alexandru Preda, please see the links below for more information:

PhD in Sociology

This page was published on 1 March 2011


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