Practices of Calculation

Abstract

As recent studies in economic and financial sociology have underscored, calculation is central to economic practices. While some sociological accounts locate the performance of calculation within individual ability, networks of human agents or their cultural embeddedness, studies operating on the background of the sociology of (scientific) knowledge conceive of calculation as situated in the practice of the participants engaged, the technological tools used and their requirements. The article explores this point further, using a distinction which can be traced back to Heidegger’s notion of Gestell (enframing): the ‘calculation of something’ and the ‘calculation with something’ are analysed taking the practices of risk management departments of big international banks as an example. It is argued that, through the use of calculation tools, the corporate clients are constituted anew and that written documents which are the outcome of this process constitute a social prosthesis for remote communication taking place between subsidiaries and the headquarters of international banks.

When accounts become information: A study of investors’ ESG analysis practice

“…For example, Callon (1998) proposes the term ''calculative agencies'' to describe a complex and collective practice dependent on tools and which involves disentanglement and framing. Studying customer analysis and calculation within a bank, Kalthoff (2005) instead conceives of activities of calculation as ''epistemic practices''.…”

“…Information, in their study, is there and needs to be interpreted in some way. Kalthoff (2005) is more specific when describing the input to the studied models. He describes information as ''documents (e.g., balance sheets, profit and loss accounts) which they receive from their clients and other institutions (e.g., consultants)' ' (2005: 70).…”

“…The analysts then need to transform these documents into their own model of representation. The documents, in Kalthoff's (2005) case, are manually entered into the calculation tool, and then, ratios can be calculated.…”

“…When studying how accounts are identified as information, I am influenced by work on epistemic practice (Kalthoff, 2005;Knorr-Cetina, 2001;Rheinberger, 1992a) and in particular by Knorr Cetina's (1999) ''technology of representation''. Instead of focusing on frames for interpretation, their origin in economics and how these shape the behaviour of their users, which the social studies of finance already do (e.g., Beunza & Garud, 2007;Callon, 1998;MacKenzie & Millo, 2003), the present study focuses on the interaction between analysts and accounts that become identified as information and input to such models.…”

“…The work on epistemic practice is useful in this sense as it, in the words of Kalthoff (2005: 71), ''aims at shifting the notion of calculation from 'calculating something' to 'calculating with something'''. Kalthoff (2005) and the work on epistemic practice thereby shift attention from what is calculated to how it is calculated. Another interest is the material aspect of the practice.…”