Book review: New perspectives on emotions in finance: the sociology of confidence, fear and betrayal

"New Perspectives on Emotions in Finance : The Sociology of Confidence, Fear and Betrayal." Jocelyn Pixley (ed.). Routledge. November 2012. --- This volume examines the seemingly uncontrollable, fragile world of finance and explains the ‘panics’ of traders and ‘immoral panics’ in banking, ‘confidence’ of government and commercial decision makers, ‘shame’ or ‘cynicism’ of investors and asymmetries of ‘impersonal trust’ between finance corporations and their many publics. Instead of one ‘correct’ vision, sociologists in this book argue that corporations and global dependencies are driven by fears and normless sentiments which foster betrayal. This is a thought provoking collection, writes Alastair Hill, with many contributions adding positively to the debate on the state of economics.