Arbeitspapier

Imagined futures. Fictionality in economic action

Starting from the assumption that decision situations in economic contexts are characterized by fundamental uncertainty, the paper argues that the decision-making of intentionally rational actors is anchored in fictions. 'Fictionality' in economic action is the inhabitation in the mind of an imagined future state of the world and the beliefs in causal mechanisms leading to this future state. Actors are motivated in their actions by the imagined future and organize their activities based on these mental representations. Since these representations are not confined to empirical reality, fictionality is also a source of creativity in the economy. Fictionality opens up a way to an understanding of the microfoundations of the dynamics of the economy. The paper develops the notion of fictional expectations and applies it to investments, consumption and money. The last part relates the notion of fiction to calculation and social macrostructures as two other devices of decision-making and hints at the relevance of fictionality for the macrodynamics of capitalism.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: MPIfG Discussion Paper ; No. 11/8

Klassifikation
Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie, Anthropologie

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Beckert, Jens
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
(wo)
Cologne
(wann)
2011

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Beckert, Jens
  • Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies

Entstanden

  • 2011

Ähnliche Objekte (12)