Valuation Studies and the performativity approach

A consideration of Donald MacKenzie's empirical studies on finance

Abstract

The aim of this article is to shed new light on the performativity approach by looking at DonaldMacKenzie’s empirical studies on finance. From the early 2000s, MacKenzie has shifted his analytical focus from science and technology to finance and has engaged in a wide variety of the socio-historical analysis and the field studies addressing the role of economic knowledge and material device in the financial phenomena. This article analyses the use of MacKenzie’s concepts, namely Barnesian performativity, counterperformativity, agencement, finitism and interaction order, in his empirical studies. With this work done, the readers will be better placed to realize what MacKenzie’s analysis precisely focuses on and its relevance with the context of Valuation Studies, a new developing interdisciplinary research field.