Finance and Society

Module Outline, Spring Term 2018

Module Description
This module sets out to look at finance in relation to a broad range of social issues
mainly from the perspective of the sociology of finance. The issues are selected for
interest and are intended to promote debate. The main background reading will be
from a small number of recommended books and articles but students will be
expected to read more widely and to review the treatment of finance in at least one
book. Students will be expected to lead at least one seminar with an introduction to
one or more books recommended for review.

This module is open to any final year undergraduate student.

This document, the Finance and Society Module Outline, explains the content of the
module, the learning methods and the assessment procedures. Further supporting
materials will be posted on ELE.

Key information
Module Code: BEM3045
Module Tutor: Michael Rowlinson,
Professor of Management & Organizational History
Office Streatham Court 1.67 (usually in my office Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays in between teaching)
Office hours: Wednesday 10:00 – 12:00
Lectures: Friday, 10.35-12.25
Seminars: Mondays, every other week starting Jan 31st, please attend your
allocated seminars
Assignment dates:
Book Review to be handed in Wednesday March 28th through ELE as
Word Document

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Module aims
The aim of the module is to encourage students to think about finance in a broader
social context and from a variety of perspectives. To facilitate this, wide and diverse
reading is encouraged, and students are expected to lead seminars.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills
• 1. explain different perceptions of finance in society
• 2. evaluate the role of finance in its broader social context
• 3. assess perceptions of finance in a variety of media including the financial press,
art, and in particular fiction
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
• 4. identify and explain perceptions of financial management and decision-making
from a variety of traditions and perspectives
ILO: Personal and key skills
• 5. select and synthesize appropriate material from a range of sources (both
academic and popular)
• 6. analyse, communicate and present ideas, principles and evidence that support a
reasoned and consistent argument

Learning/teaching methods

Teaching Strategy - The module is taught through a set of integrated lectures (2 hours
per week) and seminars (5 in total). The lectures provide the survey of the subject
area, focusing on particular chapters and articles. During seminars students should be
prepared to present their own reading of relevant books and articles. Additional
reading will be suggested in lectures.

Assessment Strategy - The assessment has two components:

 A 2,000 word book review (30%) will enable students to read more widely on
a particular topic or to review a relevant book more closely.

 A 2 hour exam (70%) with 3 questions to be answered from around 10 options

will cover a range of topics from the module.

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Syllabus plan
The core content of the module will include:
1. The Sociology of Finance - modern finance looks and sounds like the Great Oz
from The Wizard of Oz; sociologists are always trying to find ways to look behind
the curtain.
2. Economics - are financial markets efficient? Or is the efficient market hypothesis
performative? Do you have to believe in efficient markets to work in finance?
3. Markets - what do financial markets do? Where can they be found? What is it like
to work in one?
4. Politics - do financial institutions have too much influence in politics? How many
politicians have connections with the finance sector?
5. Crises - how is the global financial crisis 2008 remembered? Who really suffered
from the global financial crisis of 2008? Should anyone still be punished for it?
6. Class - how does the ideal of meritocracy fit with the observation that the smartness
of investment bankers is represented by their default upper-classness, maleness,
whiteness, and straightness?
7. Gender - is investing essentially a masculine or a feminine activity? Are women
essentially more risk averse than men? If they are, what are the business
implications of having only a small minority of women in senior positions in
finance?
8. Inequality - is the finance sector to blame for increasing levels of inequality in
society?
9. Financialization - why is it that financial motives, markets, and institutions play an
increasing role in our personal lives, society, and the economy?
10. City of London - how important is the finance sector for London and the UK? Are
international financial centers such as London destined to decline with the rise of
electronic networks and trading that can supposedly be carried out anywhere in
the world?

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Teaching Schedule

The planned schedule follows the syllabus plan, but could be changed depending on
the interests of students. So please say if there is something different you would like
covered! The exam is fixed in advance but there is scope to choose alternative books
for review and discussion.

Lectures
1. Introducing the Sociology of Finance
Reading: (Carruthers & Kim, 2011); (Knorr Cetina & Preda, 2012); (Shaw, 2015); for
references to financial roles and terminology see: (Shiller, 2013) and (Lanchester,
2014)

2. Economics
Reading: (Zuckerman, 2012); (Jovanovic, 2012)

3. Markets
Reading: (Knorr Cetina, 2012); (Hardie & MacKenzie, 2012)

4. Politics
Reading: (Davis, 2012); (Shiller, 2013 chapter 11 Lobbyists); (Stiglitz, 2012 chapter
Five Democracy in Peril)

5. History
Reading: (Caruthers, 2012); (Hansen, 2015)

6. Crisis
Reading: (French & Leyshon, 2012); (Jacobs, 2012); (Starkey, 2015); (Lanchester,
2010)

7. Class
Reading: (Ho, 2009 chapter 1 Biographies of Hegemony); (Rivera, 2015 chapter 1
Entering the Elite; Polish pp. 170-182; Appendix A Who Is Elite?); (Gray & Kish-
Gephart, 2013); (Binder, Davis, & Bloom, 2015); (Laurison & Friedman, 2015);
(Toynbee & Walker, 2008 Part One); (Jones, 2015 ch 7 Masters of the Universe)

8. Gender
Reading: (Maltby & Rutterford, 2012); FT Report Sexism and the City
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7c182ab8-9c33-11e4-b9f8-
00144feabdc0.html#axzz3wkurVcfw

9. Inequality
Reading: (Jung & Dobbin, 2012); (Stiglitz, 2012 look up "financial sector" in the
index); (Shiller, 2013 ch27 Inequality and Injustice); (Keister, 2014); (Kaplan, 2008a,
b); (Walsh, 2009)

10. Financialization
Reading: (Van der Zwan, 2014); (Velthuis & Coslor, 2012)

11. London
Reading: (Sassen, 2012); (Mollan & Michie, 2012); (Augar, 2008)
With revision for exam questions

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Seminars

Seminar 1 Find one or more articles from the Financial Times or the Economist
that discuss issues relevant to one or more topics in the Finance and
Society syllabus. Be prepared to give an outline of the issues and your
own opinion on the topic and how it is dealt with in the articles you
have found.

Seminars 2, 3 and 4:
Group presentation on one of the syllabus topics in relation the books
suggested for review.

Seminar 5 (week 10) Discussion of final preparations for essays or reviews before
submission.

Assessment Details

2,000 word book review – Wednesday 28th March 2018 by 3pm

Review one or more of the recommended books focusing on the topics discussed
in the module syllabus.

Suggested books for review:

(Charters, 2009; Kunzru, 2012; Lanchester, 2012; Lewis, 2015; Luyendijk, 2015; Tett,
2009)

If you would like to write an essay on an alternative title or review a different book
please let me know before the end of Week 6. Alternative titles or books to review
will be posted on ELE so that other students also have an opportunity to consider
them.

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General Requirements for Book Reviews

All book reviews must be word processed on A4 pages, double-spaced throughout -

including all references, justified, with margins of 1 inch (2.5 cms) and page numbers

from the first page. The required font is Times New Roman size 12. Essays should be

c2,000 words including all references and any other material.

Essays will be assessed mainly on content, but structure, style and presentation

are important. There is no “one best way” to write a review, but you should take

account of the following points. Avoid unsubstantiated assertions and rhetorical

questions. Lists are not very helpful if they are simply copied out of books without

explanation. Try to avoid gendered language, such as ‘man’ instead of humanity, or

fireman instead of firefighter. Sexist and racist stereotyping is unacceptable.

Plagiarism of other students’ work or from other sources will be penalized, whether it

is ‘deliberately committed’ or ‘accidental.’ The best way to avoid any hint of

plagiarism is to cite the source of all material used. The Harvard (author-date) system

of referencing is preferred. Identification of interesting references that are not on the

reading list is encouraged, but there are no extra marks for irrelevant extended

bibliographies. In general any reference that is cited should appear in the list of

references at the end of your essay, and all references listed should be cited

somewhere. If an author is cited from a secondary source, say a textbook, then the

reference should make this clear.

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Marking, Feedback and Discussion

The detailed marking criteria based on the University’s Generic Assessment Criteria is
available for each assignment on ELE. The criteria are specific to each of the two
assignments. There is a feedback sheet for marking available on ELE which should
help students ensure all assignments cover the general requirements for the module.

Michael Rowlinson will first mark all assignments and exams, and then a second
marker will moderate a sample covering the range of grades. A further sample will
then be provided to the external examiner to review in advance of the final
examination board in June, when we determine your final confirmed grades (and
degree classification).

You are ALWAYS welcome to come and discuss your essay performance.

University of Exeter Business School

Prof. Michael Rowlinson

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References
Augar, P. 2008. The death of gentlemanly capitalism: the rise and fall of London's
investment banks: Penguin UK.
Binder, A. J., Davis, D. B., & Bloom, N. 2015. Career Funneling How Elite Students
Learn to Define and Desire ‘‘Prestigious’’Jobs. Sociology of Education:
0038040715610883.
Carruthers, B. G., & Kim, J.-C. 2011. The sociology of finance. Annual Review of
Sociology, 37: 239-259.
Caruthers, B. G. 2012. Historical Sociology of Modern Finance. In K. Knorr Cetina,
& A. Preda (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance: 491.
Charters, D. 2009. At Bonus Time, No One Can Hear You Scream.
Davis, G. F. 2012. Politics and financial markets. The Oxford Handbook of the
Sociology of Finance: 33.
French, S., & Leyshon, A. 2012. Dead Pledges: Mortgaging Time and Space. In K.
Knorr Cetina, & A. Preda (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the sociology of
finance: 357.
Gray, B., & Kish-Gephart, J. J. 2013. Encountering social class differences at work:
How “class work” perpetuates inequality. Academy of Management Review,
38(4): 670-699.
Hansen, P. H. 2015. From Finance Capitalism to Financialization: A Cultural and
Narrative Perspective on 150 Years of Financial History. Enterprise &
Society, 15(4): 605-642.
Hardie, I., & MacKenzie, D. 2012. The Material Sociology of Arbitrage, The Oxford
Handbook of the Sociology of Finance: 187.
Ho, K. 2009. Liquidated : an ethnography of Wall Street. Durham: Duke University
Press.
Jacobs, M. D. 2012. Financial Crises as Symbols and Rituals. In K. Knorr Cetina, &
A. Preda (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Finance: 376.
Jones, O. 2015. The establishment: And how they get away with it: Melville House.
Jovanovic, F. 2012. Finance in Modern Economic Thought, Handbook of the
Sociology of Finance, im Erscheinen: 546.
Jung, J., & Dobbin, F. 2012. Finance and Institutional Investors, The Oxford
Handbook of the Sociology of Finance: 52.
Kaplan, S. N. 2008a. Are US CEOs overpaid? Academy of Management
Perspectives, 22(2): 5-20.
Kaplan, S. N. 2008b. Are US CEOs Overpaid? A Response to Bogle and Walsh.
Academy of Management Perspectives, 22(3): 28-34.
Keister, L. A. 2014. The one percent. Annual Review of Sociology, 40: 347-367.
Knorr Cetina, K. 2012. What is a financial market? Global markets as
microinstitutional and post-traditional social forms, The Oxford Handbook of
the Sociology of Finance: 115.
Knorr Cetina, K., & Preda, A. 2012. Introduction. In K. Knorr Cetina, & A. Preda
(Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of The Sociology of Finance: 1-9. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Kunzru, H. 2012. Gods Without Men. London: Penguin.
Lanchester, J. 2010. Whoops!: Why everyone owes everyone and no one can pay:
Penguin UK.
Lanchester, J. 2012. Capital: Faber and Faber.
Lanchester, J. 2014. How to Speak Money: Faber & Faber.
Laurison, D., & Friedman, S. 2015. Introducing the Class Ceiling: Social Mobility
into Britain’s Elite Occupations.
Lewis, M. 2015. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine: Penguin.

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Luyendijk, J. 2015. Swimming with Sharks: My Journey into the World of Bankers:
Guardian Books and Faber and Faber.
Maltby, J., & Rutterford, J. 2012. Gender and finance. In K. Knorr Cetina, & A. Preda
(Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the sociology of finance: 510-528. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Mollan, S., & Michie, R. 2012. The City of London as an international commercial
and financial center since 1900. Enterprise and Society, 13(03): 538-587.
Rivera, L. A. 2015. Pedigree: How elite students get elite jobs: Princeton University
Press.
Sassen, S. 2012. Global finance and its institutional spaces, The Oxford handbook of
the sociology of finance: 13.
Shaw, K. 2015. Crunch Lit: Bloomsbury.
Shiller, R. J. 2013. Finance and the good society: Princeton University Press.
Starkey, K. 2015. The strange absence of management during the current financial
crisis. Academy of Management Review: amr. 2015.0109.
Stiglitz, J. 2012. The price of inequality: Penguin UK.
Tett, G. 2009. Fool's Gold: how the bold dream of a small tribe at J.P. Morgan was
corrupted by Wall Street greed and unleashed a catastrophe (Free Press
hardcover ed.). New York: Free Press.
Toynbee, P., & Walker, D. 2008. Unjust rewards: Exposing greed and inequality in
Britain today: Granta Books.
Van der Zwan, N. 2014. Making sense of financialization. Socio-Economic Review,
12(1): 99-129.
Velthuis, O., & Coslor, E. 2012. The financialization of art, The Oxford handbook of
the sociology of finance: 471.
Walsh, J. P. 2009. Are US CEOs Overpaid? A Partial Response to Kaplan. Academy
of Management Perspectives, 23(1): 73-75.
Zuckerman, E. W. 2012. Market efficiency: a sociological perspective. The Oxford
Handbook of the Sociology of Finance: 223-249.