A ‘material political economy’ is an ordering of the material world that is economically consequential and to which there are actual or potential alternatives. After motivating this idea by drawing on the work of the medieval historian Marc Bloch, Professor Donald MacKenzie will explore the contours of two important current material political economies: ultrafast high-frequency trading, and bitcoin mining.
Donald MacKenzie is Professor of Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. His current research is on the sociology of markets, focusing on automated trading. A frequent contributor to The London Review of Books, MacKenzie has written and edited many books, the latest of which are An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets (MIT Press) and Chains of Finance: How Investment Management is Shaped (Oxford University Press, with Arjaliès et al.)
Presented by the Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies. The event will take place on Wednesday, October 24th, 2018 at 6pm at The New School’s Starr Foundation Hall inside the University Center at 63 Fifth Avenue, room UL102, New York, NY 10003. For more information, visit the event page here