Jens Beckert's research while affiliated with Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and other places

... We agree that there are important links to be made between CNT and the sociology of expectations; both in the central role of emotion and in the importance of treating future expectations, and the narratives that underlie them, as fictional acts of imagination. This idea of "fictional expectations" (in contrast to the idea of "rational expectations" in neo-classical economic theory) has been central to the work of Beckert (2016), whose commentary we now turn to. 4 | NARRATIVES, POWER, AND THE AGENCY OF CALCULATIVE DEVICES Beckert (2022), who has blazed a trail in sociology demanding attention to "imaginaries" opens his commentary with a rejection of the universal applicability of rational calculation of optimal solutions, a common assumption in economics but a dangerous assumption in most high-impact real-world decision-making contexts. He suggests that "normative theories of optimizing reach their limits when radical uncertainty is taken seriously" (p. ...

... We suggest that these strategies aim to increase the agency of business families in determining their transgenerational futures, including influencing their environments to achieve this goal. Sociologists have already observed that these wealth preservation strategies go beyond wealth management and relate to proactive legitimation of durable wealth reproduction across generations, including influencing institutions such as inheritance law and tax treatments of charitable foundations (Beckert, 2022). In Chapter 19 in this handbook, Kuusela suggests "the possible roles of members of wealthy families themselves play in our such processes deserve further scrutiny as a recent focus in research on the professionals has resulted in a situation where the agency of the wealthy has been empirically marginalized and also untheorized". ...

... We consider historical approaches particularly relevant for understanding situations of uncertainty. When fields change (Beckert, 2010), actors often draw on history, sensemaking and narratives of the past (Beckert & Bronk, 2019). If actors draw on experiences, perceptions, and history, historical research might provide useful information about possible factors of, for example, location or nationality choice that would be difficult to identify with abstract scenarios, including actors' motives and values and firm-specific considerations and valuations. ...

... Following Foster-Fishman, Nowell, and Yang (2007), we distinguish between "first-order" systems change as incremental improvements within existing modes of practice, and "second-order" systems change, which focuses on strategies to bring about a paradigm shift in terms of the framing of an issue. Discursive institutionalist approaches have shown how entrepreneurs construct and tell stories of "imagined futures" (see Beckert, 2021;Thompson & Byrne, 2022) to counter uncertainty and persuade others to support their cause. Relatedly, where scholars have attempted to theorize the systems change potential of social entrepreneurship there has been a focus on the framing tactics used to attract popular support to build a "movement for change" (Zahra, Gedajlovic, Neubaum, & Shulman, 2009). ...

... As an explicit theme, anticipation has traditionally not been at the centre of attention in sociological research and theorising. In recent years, however, there has been an uptake of interest in variations on the topic (Beckert & Suckert, 2021). For the purposes of the present article, the sociological research relevant to anticipation may be fruitfully divided along two axes. ...

... In cultural markets, like the one for wine, fashion or art, objective quality standards are difficult to determine. Market intermediaries shape the perceived quality of cultural products (Beckert, 2020;Bourdieu, 1993). For the market of contemporary art, recent research revealed that artist credentialing by different art-market subgroups influences art prices (Serwart, 2022). ...

... The relationship between standards and values needs our attention, because we know that standards infuse value chains with valueladen qualities (Ponte & Gibbon, 2005), shape businesses and markets globally (Djelic & Quack, 2018) and are part of today's moral economy (Busch, 2000). Standards are thus strongly intertwined with values in economic contexts (e.g., production, trade, sales, consumption) -and this goes far beyond economic value (Beckert & Aspers, 2011). ...

... Nessa mesma linha, Beckert (2007) aponta duas deficiências no uso da imersão social na NSE. A primeira refere-se ao termo embeddedness que foi restringido por Mark Granovetter para a investigação de estruturas de redes sociais. ...

... Untersuchungen von wirtschaftlichen Phänomenen und Handlungen haben unter dem Label ‚neue Wirtschaftssoziologie' stark an Relevanz gewonnen (Beamish 2007;Swedberg 1997). Der Markt und dessen Wandel gelten als eines der zentralsten Untersuchungsbereiche der neueren Wirtschaftssoziologie, weshalb zunehmend auch von marktsoziologischen Untersuchungen die Rede ist (Aspers und Beckert 2008;Beckert et al. 2007 (Beckert et al. 2007;Swedberg 1994). Um zu präzisieren, was eine soziale Struktur ist und wie diese wirkt, wird vor allem auf das Konzept der Einbettung (embeddedness) zurückgegriffen. ...

... Collier and Lakoff (2021), for instance, provide a revelatory genealogy of the discourse of emergency and preparedness in the American context, and how it came to be materialized in concrete political initiatives. This line of research resonates with the approaches entailing a strong critical drive and discussion of various forms of legitimacy reproduction in neoliberalism that entail imaginaries of the future and regimes of hope (Beckert 2020). Alternatively, it may intertwine with what some authors deem "sociology of failure" (Yazell 2020), or simply failure as an element of the "sociological imagination" of distinctive possibilities, such as "migratory" or "climate futures" potentials (see Paterson 2016). ...