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‘This could be our reality in the next five to ten years’: a blogpost platform as an expectation generation device on the future of insurance markets

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  • Gert Meyers
  • Ine Van Hoyweghen

Abstract

William James (1919) characterises hypotheses as either live or dead. A hypothesis is live when it is taken into account as a ‘real possibility’. We follow James’ suggestion to not attribute intrinsic properties to hypotheses, but rather investigate how they came into being and look at the effects they generate. Expectations of digital technologies are a topic of vivid debate in the insurance industry. Before these expectations can become ‘live’, they have, in the first place, to be generated by market devices. We investigate how the reinsurance blogpost platform Open Minds functions as an ‘expectation generation device’ on the future of insurance markets. Combining Beckert’s work on the role of fictional expectations with the pragmatist turn in sociology of markets, we propose to study ‘expectation generation devices’, provoking expectations on economic markets. In our empirical analysis, we demonstrate the explicit fictional character of the Open Minds contributions, and analyse how a contained space of openness is generated to provoke expectations. We demonstrate how Open Minds can become live through circulation to other expectation generation sites in the insurance industry and beyond. We conclude by reflecting on the importance of expectation generation devices as a particular type of market devices.

Suggested Citation

  • Gert Meyers & Ine Van Hoyweghen, 2018. "‘This could be our reality in the next five to ten years’: a blogpost platform as an expectation generation device on the future of insurance markets," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 125-140, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:11:y:2018:i:2:p:125-140
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2017.1418408
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Donald MacKenzie & Fabian Muniesa & Lucia Siu, 2007. "Introduction to Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics," Introductory Chapters, in: Donald MacKenzie & Fabian Muniesa & Lucia Siu (ed.),Do Economists Make Markets? On the Performativity of Economics, Princeton University Press.
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    6. McFall, Liz, 2014. "Devising Consumption: cultural economies of insurance, credit and spending," OSF Preprints at2nv, Center for Open Science.
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