88 research outputs found
Constructing a New Asset Class: Property-led Financial Accumulation after the Crisis
This paper is concerned with new modes of property-led financial
accumulation emerging in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Focusing on the US,
the paper traces the creation of an asset class derived from securitizing the rental
income of foreclosed homes turned rental properties. The study strategically
combines conceptual agendas often pursued separately. Theories of market formation
rooted in science and technology studies inform the method of analysis, so as to
attend to the work of realizing markets, the role of calculative devices in market
formation, and the contingent and conditional aspects of markets. This analysis
reveals the single-family rental (SFR) asset class as a practical accomplishment.
However, a broader framework rooted in political economy is necessary to attend to
the broader significance of the SFR asset class in terms of power, politics, and the
dynamics of capital accumulation. The paper particularly focuses upon the historical
and geographic contingencies making it possible to conceive of a large-scale SFR
market, the work of state and capital market actors in reframing repossessed singlefamily
homes as rental properties and the role calculative practices played in this
process, and the strategies of issuers and credit rating agencies to frame a novel asset
class for institutional investors. The SFR asset class affirms the fundamental role for
housing in the ideology of capital, and speaks to new entanglements of financial
actors and home life as financial accumulation is adjusted to the post-crisis context.
Beyond shedding light on post-crisis housing financialization, the paper demonstrates
how economic geographers can carefully integrate theoretical perspectives to
critically examine both the circumstances of market formation and the social, spatial,
and political consequences of markets
Naturalizing Institutions: Evolutionary Principles and Application on the Case of Money
The anthropology of money and finance : between ethnography and world history
We review here recent developments in the anthropology of money and finance, listing its
achievements, shortcomings and prospects, while referring back to the disciplineâs founders a
century ago. We take our departure from the work of Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi, both of
whom combined openness to ethnographic research with a vision of world history as a whole.
Since the 1960s, anthropologists have tended to restrict themselves to niche fields and
marginal debates. From the 1980s the anthropological study of money and ethnographies of
finance especially have taken off. Despite taking on new objects and directions,
anthropologists still find it difficult to connect their situated analyses with global processes
and world history. We propose some conceptual and empirical directions for research that
would seek to overcome these limitations by integrating ethnography more closely with
human history, while stressing the importance of money in shaping world society and in
attempts to reform it.http://www.annualreviews.org/hb201
Multi-criteria decision analysis with goal programming in engineering, management and social sciences: a state-of-the art review
Cooling Suits, Physiological Response, and Task Performance in Hot Environments for the Power Industry
Heat stress on workers working outdoors in the power industry may result in fatigue and deterioration in task performance. This research collected and analyzed data on task performance of workers working indoors and outdoors with and without a cooling suit. The task performance was compared on the basis of heart rate, oxygen consumption, tympanic temperature, subjective responses, productivity, and error rates. Based on One-Way Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) results, a significantly lower estimated working oxygen consumption was observed (p < .001) when the cooling suit was worn. The productivity was higher while workers wore the cooling suit as compared to no cooling suit (p = .011) whereas the error rates were significantly lower (p < .001). Also a significantly lower self-reported discomfort was observed in the neck and shoulders while working wearing the cooling suit (p = .004). This study concluded that wearing a cooling suit while working outdoors was associated with physiological benefits as well as improved task performance of the study participants
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