Wow. Memorable keynote by SASE President Nina Bandelj on the intermingling of emotion and markets #SASE2024 ⁦SASE⁩ ⁦Nina Bandelj⁩ 1/n

In her presentation of parenting strategies and presentation “styles” that blend the economic and the affective, Bandelj unearthed a widespread social trend that spoke directly to my own experience. Wanting the best for my daughter, I got the best possible school for her.

Why might that be a problem? Bandelj elaborates on Zelizer’s attack of the naive idea that the market and non-market are “separate spheres” She showed, eg, that by framing their message 19 C insurance firms persuaded wives of the acceptability of life insurance for their husbands

But this connection between the two spheres has become overly coupled, leading loving parents to overinvest in their kids’ education driving up social inequality. Or, to self-presentation styles (“I’m so passionate”) that instrumentalize emotion for performance-boosting purposes

Indeed, Gary Becker himself advocated this approach, noting that rational actors should maximize not just the monetary but also the “psychic” income from investing in human capital

But, as much as the problem was clearly articulated, Bandelj gave few pointers about possible solutions. Clearly, she cannot be arguing *against* the connectedness of emotions and markets… because that factual observation by Zelizer is her very point of departure

It is also difficult to ask individuals to give up on their deliberate attempts to supercharge their emotional or economic performance by connecting the two spheres. Which parent would pass up the chance to advantage their child?

One possible fix may be socially-instituted attempts to separate, or slightly uncouple the spheres of the personal and the market. As in other forms of separation (Church and state?) that prevent enmeshing.

It’d be interesting to consider which separations might those be, what specific forms they take, whether they are working as of now, and how might Bandelj’s thinking further our understanding of them

What's the future for ESG research in the age of the ESG backlash? At the recent #egos2024 conference in Milan researchers confronted the backlash and what response to give. Here’s my take 1/n egos.org/2024_Milan/SUB… @fferraro Shipeng

Core to the Egos debate was not just the political backlash to ESG, but a subsequent academic backlash whereby renown scholars have mounted a searing challenge to the findings of ESG research 2/n papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

How should ESG scholars position themselves? The entanglement of the political and scientific strikes at the core of sustainable finance, often an acknowledged but underproblematized activism-research identity, where both scientific advancement and progressive ideals matter 3/n

E.g., should ESG researchers join in the critique of ESG practice? Doing so can improve the latter, but might also be mobilized by climate denialists: a counter-performative move where ESG research would contribute to ESG’s demise 4/n forbes.com/sites/christin…

The backlash thus poses an seeming dilemma for scholars engaging with the ESG field: be impactful but destructive, or be mindful but irrelevant. The stakes for the graduate students, junior faculty and others in the room this past Saturday in Milan could not be higher 5/n

Some proposals advanced by panelists were not helpful. Eg, doing “better ESG research” with thicker qualitative data, or more robust regressions. But this does not confront the limitations of ESG, nor engage public ESG skepticism, detaching researchers from the public debate 6/n

Panelists offered a valuable suggestion: abandon the business case for ESG, ie that it preserves investment returns. That was a depoliticizing strategy to promote ESG beyond its political proponents, yet the business case for CSR was abandoned 15 ago! 7/n journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2307/35…

Abandoning the business case has multiple advantages. It uncovers the key political dimension of sustainable investment, namely, it is a market-based solution to the gigantic market failure crated by the externalities caused by free carbon emissions 8/n versobooks.com/en-gb/products…

... But it entailed a tension between the political & the economic: (1) the business case for ESG hinges on imagined policies that make ESG investments pay, but (2) the advancement of ESG also sparks strong political resistance that (3) limits those very imagined policies 9/n

Laszlo Bruszt, Gina Neff, and Pablo Boczkowski speaking on Problems of Democracy. November 8th, Center on Organizational innovation, Columbia University.

Foro Cañada Blanch 2025 | Fundación Cañada Blanch fundacioncanadablanch.org/actividades/th…