IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mpifgd/118.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Imagined futures. Fictionality in economic action

Author

Listed:
  • Beckert, Jens

Abstract

Starting from the assumption that decision situations in economic contexts are characterized by fundamental uncertainty, the paper argues that the decision-making of intentionally rational actors is anchored in fictions. 'Fictionality' in economic action is the inhabitation in the mind of an imagined future state of the world and the beliefs in causal mechanisms leading to this future state. Actors are motivated in their actions by the imagined future and organize their activities based on these mental representations. Since these representations are not confined to empirical reality, fictionality is also a source of creativity in the economy. Fictionality opens up a way to an understanding of the microfoundations of the dynamics of the economy. The paper develops the notion of fictional expectations and applies it to investments, consumption and money. The last part relates the notion of fiction to calculation and social macrostructures as two other devices of decision-making and hints at the relevance of fictionality for the macrodynamics of capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckert, Jens, 2011. "Imagined futures. Fictionality in economic action," MPIfG Discussion Paper 11/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:118
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/45621/1/659413396.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jens Beckert, 2003. "Economic Sociology and Embeddedness: How Shall We Conceptualize Economic Action?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 769-787, September.
    2. Martin Hellwig, 2009. "Systemic Risk in the Financial Sector: An Analysis of the Subprime-Mortgage Financial Crisis," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 129-207, June.
    3. Lucas, Robert Jr., 1972. "Expectations and the neutrality of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 103-124, April.
    4. J. M. Keynes, 1937. "The General Theory of Employment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 51(2), pages 209-223.
    5. Beckert, Jens, 2000. "Economic sociology in Germany," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 1(2), pages 2-7.
    6. George A. Akerlof, 2009. "How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(5), pages 1175-1175.
    7. Deutschmann, Christoph, 2009. "Soziologie kapitalistischer Dynamik," MPIfG Working Paper 09/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    8. Philip Mirowski, 1991. "Postmodernism and the Social Theory of Value," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 565-582, July.
    9. Bronk,Richard, 2009. "The Romantic Economist," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521513845, October.
    10. Michel Callon & Fabian Muniesa, 2005. "Economic markets as calculative collective devices," Post-Print halshs-00087477, HAL.
    11. Augier, Mie & Kreiner, Kristian, 2000. "Rationality, Imagination and Intelligence: Some Boundaries in Human Decision-Making," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 659-681, December.
    12. Fligstein, Neil, 2001. "Social Skill and the Theory of Fields," Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics, Working Paper Series qt26m187b1, Center for Culture, Organizations and Politics of theInstitute for Research on Labor and Employment, UC Berkeley.
    13. Bronk,Richard, 2009. "The Romantic Economist," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521735155, October.
    14. Olivier Favereau & Emmanuel Lazega (ed.), 2002. "Conventions and Structures in Economic Organization," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2235.
    15. Piotti, Geny, 2009. "German companies engaging in China: Decision-making processes at home and management practices in Chinese subsidiaries," MPIfG Working Paper 09/14, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    16. Ingham, Geoffrey, 2004. "The nature of money," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 5(2), pages 18-28.
    17. Elster Jon, 2009. "Excessive Ambitions," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 4(2), pages 1-33, October.
    18. Patalano Roberta, 2003. "Beyond rationality: images as guide-lines to choice," CESMEP Working Papers 200305, University of Turin.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin B. Carstensen, 2013. "Projecting from a Fiction: The Case of Denmark and the Financial Crisis," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(4), pages 555-578, August.
    2. Priddat, Birger P., 2014. "Entscheidung als zeitliche Setzung: Über Narration, Fiktion, Erwartung und Zeitlichkeit in der Ökonomie," Wittener Diskussionspapiere zu alten und neuen Fragen der Wirtschaftswissenschaft 28/2014, Witten/Herdecke University, Faculty of Management and Economics.
    3. Grahame Thompson, 2014. "From Artisan to Partisan," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 95-120, February.
    4. Mützel, Sophie, 2013. "On coordination: Stories and meaning making in markets," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 14(2), pages 4-9.
    5. Bronk, Richard, 2013. "Hayek on the wisdom of prices: a reassessment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 50371, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Bernhard, Stefan, 2018. "Wie wird man eigentlich ein Marktteilnehmer? : Qualitative Studien zur Gründung und Einbettung von Marktakteuren," IAB-Discussion Paper 201823, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Mélix, Sophie, 2022. "Renderings: Bildwelten zur Legitimation von spekulativen Stadtentwicklungsprojekten in Lagos und New York [Renderings. Visual worlds for the legitimization of speculative urban development projects," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(1), pages 97-126.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Solomon Sorin & Golo Natasa, 2013. "Minsky Financial Instability, Interscale Feedback, Percolation and Marshall–Walras Disequilibrium," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 167-260, October.
    2. Cornelia Woll, 2010. "Firm Interests in Uncertain Times: Business Lobbying in Multilateral Service Liberalization," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73, Sciences Po.
    3. Herr, Hansjörg, 2009. "Time, expectations and financial markets," IPE Working Papers 03/2009, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    4. Ekaterina Svetlova & Henk van Elst, 2012. "How is non-knowledge represented in economic theory?," Papers 1209.2204, arXiv.org.
    5. K. Vela Velupillai, 2012. ""Dear Professor Mankiw..."- Reflections on Four Decades of Learning and Teaching Macroeconomics," ASSRU Discussion Papers 1206, ASSRU - Algorithmic Social Science Research Unit.
    6. Pacces Alessio M, 2017. "The Role of the Future in Law and Finance," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 23(2), pages 1-14, December.
    7. Ronald Schettkat, 2020. "Micro-Foundations of Diverging Economic Policies: Keynesian, Behavioural, Neoclassic," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 55(2), pages 105-111, March.
    8. Beckert, Jens, 2012. "Capitalism as a system of contingent expectations: Toward a sociological microfoundation of political economy," MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    9. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m3igpqi is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Cornelia Woll, 2010. "Firm Interests in Uncertain Times: Business Lobbying in Multilateral Service Liberalization," Post-Print hal-00972803, HAL.
    11. Bronk, Richard, 2013. "Hayek on the wisdom of prices: a reassessment," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 50371, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Josh Ryan-Collins, 2015. "Is Monetary Financing Inflationary? A Case Study of the Canadian Economy, 1935-75," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_848, Levy Economics Institute.
    13. Möllering, Guido, 2009. "Market constitution analysis: A new framework applied to solar power technology markets," MPIfG Working Paper 09/7, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    14. Tiziana Assenza & Te Bao & Cars Hommes & Domenico Massaro, 2014. "Experiments on Expectations in Macroeconomics and Finance," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experiments in Macroeconomics, volume 17, pages 11-70, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Walter, Timo, 2019. "Janus Face of Inflation Targeting_Walter_PrePrint," OSF Preprints 9fmhe, Center for Open Science.
    16. Beckert, Jens, 2009. "Pragmatismus und wirtschaftliches Handeln," MPIfG Working Paper 09/4, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    17. George‐Marios Angeletos & Fabrice Collard & Harris Dellas, 2018. "Quantifying Confidence," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(5), pages 1689-1726, September.
    18. James Copestake & Richard Williams, 2014. "Political-Economy Analysis, Aid Effectiveness and the Art of Development Management," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 32(1), pages 133-153, January.
    19. J. E. King, 2010. "Six More Refuted Doctrines: A Comment on Quiggin," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(1), pages 34-39, March.
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/f5vtl5h9a73d5ls976m3igpqi is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Pixley, Jocelyn, 2010. "The use of risk in understanding financial decisions and institutional uncertainty," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 209-222, April.
    22. Ashok Chakravarti, 2012. "Institutions, Economic Performance and the Visible Hand," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14751.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:118. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mpigfde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.