Uncertain Futures considers how economic actors visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. It starts from the premise that dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by relentless innovation and novelty and hence exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced to measurable risk. The organizing question then becomes how economic actors form expectations and make decisions despite the uncertainty they face.
This edited volume lays the foundations for a new model of economic reasoning by showing how, in conditions of uncertainty, economic actors combine calculation with imaginaries and narratives to form fictional expectations that coordinate action and provide the confidence to act. It draws on groundbreaking research in economic sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology to present theoretically grounded empirical case studies. These demonstrate how grand narratives, central bank forward guidance, economic forecasts, finance models, business plans, visions of technological futures, and new era stories influence behaviour and become instruments of power in markets and societies. The market impact of shared calculative devices, social narratives, and contingent imaginaries underlines the rationale for a new form of narrative economics.
Uncertain Futures considers how economists visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of uncertainty. As dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by innovation and novelty they exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced. This book questions how expectations can be formed and decisions made in spite of uncertainty.
"Questions about how best to characterise the practical grounds of economic agency and the epistemic tools for interpreting it, remain absolutely wide open. They are posed throughout Uncertain Futures in a variety of interesting forms, making this edited volume by Jens Beckert and Richard Bronk an important contribution to current debates on these fundamental economic issues that deserves to be widely read and constructively criticised." - Samuel Sadian, University of Barcelona
