Papers by Lena Pellandini-Simanyi
Organization Studies, 2019
Research into the creation of markets highlights the importance of law-making, seen to express re... more Research into the creation of markets highlights the importance of law-making, seen to express relations between stakeholders in emerging organizational fields. Less understood is the role of existing regulation, despite related work on path-dependency. We unpack the role of extant laws by analysing consecutive attempts to establish the mortgage market in post-socialist Hungary, mobilizing the anthropology of law and actor-network methods. Based on interviews and archival documents, we find, first, that existing laws exert agency in the market-building process not only through abstract legal ‘traditions’ but through technical features which may resist the market arrangements proposed by political-economic coalitions. Second, the resistance of law can vary based on whether its spokespersons (guardians of legal consistency) become ‘market engineers’ under specific organizational configurations. We theorize this agency with the concept of ‘legal infrastructure’, and show how it acts as a non-human organizer of markets, ensuring compatibility across the economy.
Economy and Society, 2018
Existing accounts of failure to predict the financial crisis focus on the complexity of the finan... more Existing accounts of failure to predict the financial crisis focus on the complexity of the financial system, and are less useful for understanding crises in non-securitized markets. We examine the roots of optimism leading up to the Eastern European mortgage crisis through the case of Hungary, and use recent theories of expectations, which understand them as both pragmatic and fictional practices that commonly incorporate narratives. Based on archival research and interviews with bankers, regulators and legislators, we demonstrate how the EU convergence narrative was central in forming optimistic expectations. Fusing the underspecified convergence process with an orientalist geographical imaginary, this narrative and its associated measures translated growing indebtedness as ‘catching up’ with Europe, de-emphasized exchange rate risk through a belief in European convergence and precluded crisis scenarios originating in the European Union. Our findings contribute to theories of how economic expectations are formed, stabilized and maintained by developing the concept of ‘spatializing the future’, denoting practices that handle uncertainty by charting the future as movement in concrete geographical or abstract space, along externally verifiable pathways.
Journal of Consumer Culture (forthcoming)
Existing research on how increasing household debt becomes seen as normal by consumers focuses on... more Existing research on how increasing household debt becomes seen as normal by consumers focuses on the shifting moral meanings of debt. Examining the rapid escalation of mortgage debt in post-socialist Hungary, we propose a different approach. We use practice theory to identify credit use as 'ordinary consumption' (Gronow and Warde, 2001), undertaken not for its own sake but to enable other meaningful practices. We find that mortgage debt grew due to the co-evolution of norms of a normal life centred on the home and credit instruments that facilitated and, eventually, locked in these norms. This 'naturalization' process (Wilk 2009) did not so much shift the meaning of debt but rather stripped it of meaning, making it increasingly unreflected. The process relied on mortgage instruments that served as invisible background infrastructures providing access to credit. This invisibility, however, is not a natural characteristic of mortgages, we argue, but a contested quality, and it was achieved by particular selling devices and discourses. Our analysis stresses the politics of invisibility and highlights the commercial interests at play in relegating highly risky, foreign-currency denominated mortgages into the background. Emphasising the socio-material structuring of this process, we conclude by situating both meaning-based and unreflected naturalization processes in a common framework, as contingent qualities of credit consumption. 2
Mainstream conceptualizations of ‘ethical consumption’ equate the notion with conscious, individu... more Mainstream conceptualizations of ‘ethical consumption’ equate the notion with conscious, individual, market-mediated choices motivated by ethical or political aims that transcend ordinary concerns. Drawing on data from 32 focus groups conducted in Chile and Brazil on ethical consumption, this article discusses some of the limitations of this conceptualization. First, linking the findings to recent sociology and anthropology of consumption literature, we suggest that this conceptualization fails to capture how ethics and consumption are linked in everyday life. Second, we argue that a largest part of ‘ethical outcomes’ (as defined by ethical consumption movements) in these countries are in fact results of practices following ordinary ethical concerns, which are incompatible with the basic tenets of the standard definition of ethical consumption. Therefore the article proposes a conceptualization of ethical consumption that does not centre on individual, market-mediated choices but understands ethical consumption at the level of practical outcomes, which we will refer to different types of ‘ethical living’. We illustrate these points by describing one particular ordinary moral regime that seemed to be predominant in participants’ account of ethics and consumption in both countries: one that links consumption and ethics through care. We describe how, while leading to ‘ethical outcomes’, such as energy saving or limiting overconsumption, these consumption ethics seldom rely on the mainstream view of ethical consumption as related to a politicized choice expressed through markets. Instead, they produce ‘ethical outcomes’ through following ordinary ethics and combatting, rather than embracing individual, market-mediated choices. In this context, we argue, ‘ethical consumption’ as a discourse might be inadvertently contributing to the erosion of practices leading to ‘ethical outcomes’, through reinforcing the discourse of market-based, individual choice.
Everyday consumption norms are abundantly evident in empirical studies, yet focused theoretical d... more Everyday consumption norms are abundantly evident in empirical studies, yet focused theoretical discussion is lacking. This article fills this gap by proposing three theoretical points, developed through the case study of changing personal consumption norms and public moralizing in pre-war and socialist Hungary. It suggests first that consumption norms draw on cosmologies that involve pragmatic beliefs alongside strong evaluations (Taylor 1989) which refer to ethical visions of how to live and who to be. Second, it shows that many of these ethical visions are embedded in practices as practical ethics rather than being articulated in abstract * terms. Finally, it argues that personal consumption norms are simultaneously subject to individual appropriation and constrained by collective discursive and practical conventions. Thus, norms serve as a terrain through which shared ethical visions and pragmatic beliefs are negotiated and modified.
One line of criticism leveled against studies of markets inspired by the economization research p... more One line of criticism leveled against studies of markets inspired by the economization research program [Çalışkan, K. & Callon, M. (2009) ‘Economization, part 1: shifting attention from the economy towards processes of economization’, Economy and Society, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 369–398 and Çalışkan, K. & Callon, M. (2010) ‘Economization, part 2: a research programme for the study of markets’, Economy and Society, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 1–32.] is that their analytical priorities reflect an economics-centric perspective: they prioritize the study of market exchange itself and of agents promoting market framing, while leaving non-economic agendas and the broader contexts of markets both understudied and undertheorized. This weakness tends to be attributed to contingent analytical priorities, which can be remedied by extending the program’s focus without changing its theoretical tenets. This article, in contrast, suggests that these analytical priorities stem from a theoretical tension within the program, which is caused by the complete, instead of a selective adoption of the theoretical tools of the performativity agenda in the marketization program. As a result, while the program promotes the inclusion of non-marketizing agents through the notion of co-performation, its call to focus on those phenomena that agents qualify as ‘economic’ and on the making of market exchange delimits the analysis of non-marketizing agents to their helping/hindering effects on market framing. The solution proposed is to reassess some of the performativity-inspired tools of the program in favor of a more ANT-inspired approach to markets.
Scholars applying notions of governmentality and performativity to everyday finance and work on t... more Scholars applying notions of governmentality and performativity to everyday finance and work on the financialization of daily life suggest that the daily encounter with financial products, credit rating systems and new political and media discourses promoting a financial entrepreneurial spirit lead to the penetration of financial logic into everyday realms that were once free of economic calculation. This article, drawing on interviews with Hungarian mortgage borrowers, looks at how exactly financial products shift everyday subjectivities, by focusing on three key terrains: relationships, time frames and rationality. We argue that albeit mortgages do carry their own specific logics (certain time frames, rationalities and approaches to relationships are required by certain mortgages), these logics hardly ever succeed in shaping everyday subjectivities to their own image. Finance is ‘domesticated’: mortgages are appropriated to existing relationships, temporal structures and rationalities guiding everyday life. New subjectivities emerge and a novel financial logic is applied to everyday life mostly in cases when the take-for-granted course of events breaks down: when mortgages are denied and people face payment difficulties and defaults. In these cases, previous routines of rationality are questioned, relationships are put to (a financial) test and time frames are revaluated according a financial logic.
This chapter compares political consumerism in Western and in Central and Eastern Europe as well ... more This chapter compares political consumerism in Western and in Central and Eastern Europe as well as within the CEE region, using European Social Survey, Special Eurobarometer, fairtrade sales and qualitative data. We start by discussing the largely neglected legacy of the socialist era for political consumerism. We then compare European countries along 22 aspects of political consumerism, encompassing everyday consumer choices, attitudes and awareness, going beyond the common focus on boycotting and buycotting. We show, first, that certain form of political consumerism cross-cut the East-West divide. Second, we propose a threefold classification of the CEE countries of Mainstreamer, Reluctant Comfortable and Passively Willing countries and discuss possible explanations of the differences. Finally, we outline a version of political consumerism, which we call embedded politics of everyday life, prevalent in CEE, which differs from its Western counterpart in that it is less linked to political action, and more to everyday ethics, such as thrift and patriotism.
The energy spending of Hungarian households between 2000 and 2009 showed a steady increase. Spend... more The energy spending of Hungarian households between 2000 and 2009 showed a steady increase. Spending on gas increased by 287% and on electricity by 258% (own calculation based on KSH, 2014b). Price increases, amounting to 110.7% on average yearly and to 249% overall (Elek, 2009), only partially account for the change, which indicates an absolute increase in households' per capita energy consumption.
When maintaining status-bridging friendships, people encounter inequalities in the context of the... more When maintaining status-bridging friendships, people encounter inequalities in the context of their most intimate relationships. Using interview data on how people manage friendships with significantly poorer and richer friends in Hungary, this article explores lay discourses of inequality and justice, and the processes through which they lead to the decay (or the preservation) of income-bridging friendships at the micro level and to social segregation at the macro level. It shows, first, that different – egalitarian versus meritocratic – lay conceptions of inequality and justice translate into different everyday strategies of managing income-bridging friendships, focused on the hiding versus legitimization of inequalities, respectively. Second, it traces how both of these strategies, which are aimed at maintaining income-bridging friendships, eventually lead to their decay and to growing segregation between social classes.
This article critically discusses Pierre Bourdieu's views on ethics and normative evaluations. Bo... more This article critically discusses Pierre Bourdieu's views on ethics and normative evaluations. Bourdieu acknowledged that people hold ethical stances, yet sought to show that these stances are – unconsciously – conducive to obtaining symbolic power and legitimizing hierarchy. The first part of the article looks at this argument and charts the shifts it went through particularly in the early 1990s. The second part discusses ontological and empirical critiques of the ethics as ideology argument and suggests the latter to be more salient, as Bourdieu proposed his argument as an empirical rather than as an ontological point. The reason why he nevertheless found the ethics as ideology explanation fitting to nearly all the cases he studied, as the third part argues, is not simply that reality ‘obliged’ him to do so, but his circular definition of symbolic capital as qualities that are worthy of esteem. This definition makes his argument of ethics as ideology unfalsifiable and impedes him from distinguishing between cases when legitimate power is the aim of ethics and between those when it is merely their side effect. The article concludes by suggesting ways in which Bourdieu's work can be fruitfully incorporated into the study of ethics once the tautology is resolved.
Bevezető A szociológiai irodalom részletesen tárgyalja a homofiliát, azaz azt a jelenséget, hogy ... more Bevezető A szociológiai irodalom részletesen tárgyalja a homofiliát, azaz azt a jelenséget, hogy a hasonló társadalmi helyzetű emberek hajlamosabbak egymással barátságot kötni és barátok maradni (McPherson és mások, 2011). 1 Ez egyrészt azért van, mert a hasonló társadalmi helyzet a gyakorlatban gyakoribb találkozási lehetőségekkel jár (nagyobb eséllyel járnak egy iskolába, dolgoznak hasonló beosztásban, és laknak egy környéken a hasonló osztályhelyzetű emberek); másrészt pedig azért, mert az objektív osztályhelyzet formálja habitusunkat, így a hasonló társadalmi hátterű emberek nagyobb eséllyel éreznek szubjektív szimpátiát egymás iránt. Amikor a barátok társadalmi helyzete eltávolodik egymástól, barátságuk az esetek nagy részében megszakad: kevesebb találkozási lehetőségük lesz, és egyre eltérőbbé válik a habitusuk, melyet "eltávolodásként", személyes jellemzőbeli, illetve ízlésbeli inkompatibilisként élnek meg (Burt 2000). 2 Hogyan maradnak meg a kivételnek számító, osztályhelyzeten átívelő barátságok? Ez a tanulmány e kérdés egy rész-kérdésére fókuszál, és azt vizsgálja, hogy hogyan kezelik a barátok eltérő anyagi helyzetüket. A válasz túlmutat a barátság fenntartásának -kétségkívül önmagában is érdekes -mikro-szociológiai problémáján. Egyrészt ezeken a barátságokon keresztül az emberek a makro-szinten jelentkező egyenlőtlenséggel mindennapi kapcsolataikban szembesülnek, és az erre adott reakciójuk sokat elárul az egyenlőtlenséggel kapcsolatos általános viszonyulásukról. Másrészt ezeknek a kapcsolatoknak a dinamikája betekintést nyújt a társadalmi 1 Lásd McPherson, Miller és mások: "
The thesis looks at changing everyday normative distinctions between consumption practices in thr... more The thesis looks at changing everyday normative distinctions between consumption practices in three generations of Hungarian families and explores the ethical and practical beliefs that these distinctions are based on. It builds on the one hand on material culture studies, Miller's work in particular, which sees consumption as a realm objectifying relationships and cosmologies. On the other hand it takes up Slater's argument that different notions of needs mediate normative visions of how to live; hence people's diverse definitions of needs have to be taken seriously as a basis of a political debate. The fieldwork that forms the basis of the thesis was carried out in Budapest in 2005-2006 with eight families of two or three generations from different class backgrounds. The oldest generation grew up during pre-socialist times; the middle generation was born under socialism; while those in the youngest generation started their adult life under capitalism. The methods included individual and joint family interviews with observations in everyday contexts. First, the thesis investigates ethical and practical concerns that definitions of needs and 'appropriate' practices draw on in different generations. Second, by comparing different generations of the same families, it maps the way practices and the concerns underlying them are appropriated and changed. Finally, it looks at links between private and public moralizing discourses on consumption, drawing on the existing literature and participants' own accounts and practices.
Replika-Társadalmtudományi folyóirat, Jan 1, 2005
replika - 51-52 (2005. november): 165-195 165 Simányi Léna Bevezetés a fogyasztói társadalom elmé... more replika - 51-52 (2005. november): 165-195 165 Simányi Léna Bevezetés a fogyasztói társadalom elméletébe "Korunk fogyasztói társadalmában…" -keresve sem találni jobb kezdést egy cikkhez: az olvasó egyetértően bólogatni kezd, tekintete a távolba réved, és megérezvén a lelki közösséget a szerzővel, felsóhajt: "Hát igen. " A "fogyasztói társadalom" aff éle retorikai varázsszó: mivel nincs egyezményes defi níció, mindenki kedvére használhatja a fogyasztással kapcsolatos kritikai észrevételeinek megfogalmazására, így közös kiindulási alapot nyújt a környezetszennyezést kritizáló zöldek, a kultúra áruvá válása miatt aggódó értelmiségiek, a materializmus terjedését fi rtató kutatók, és a szomszéd immár harmadik BMW-je felett méltatlankodó "utca embere" számára. A "fogyasztói társadalom" tehát gumifogalom: mindig a vizsgált tárgynak és a közelítésmódnak megfelelően változik, és ezek függvényében mindig más oldalára kerül a hangsúly. 1 Az alábbiakban megpróbálom rendszerezni a fogyasztói társadalom, a fogyasztói kultúra 2 kifejezések különböző használati módjait, ami segítséget nyújthat az e fogalmak körül kialakult és napjainkban egyre intenzívebbé váló vitákban való eligazodásban. Nem az a cél, hogy a gumifogalomból pontosan meghatározott, tudományos koncepciót varázsoljak; csupán annyi, hogy felvázoljam a különböző formákat, amelyeket felvesz, és ezzel arra indítsam a témával foglalkozókat, hogy az egyes fogalomhasználatokat -a sajátjukat is beleértve -helyezzék el a többihez képest. Ez a látszólag szerény program valójában igen nagyra törő, hiszen a magától értetődő -és valljuk be: kényelmes -"egyetlen igaz" fogyasztóitársadalom-fogalom használata helyett vitát és tudományos refl exiót -azaz a saját előfeltevések, pozíciók, vélemények nyilvánvalóvá tételét -kíván meg.
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Papers by Lena Pellandini-Simanyi
WORKSHOP
with Paul Langley and Liz McFall
3-4 March 2016, Budapest, Hungary, ELTE University
To apply please send a 300-word abstract by the 14th of December 2015 to [email protected].