Venture capitalists maximize profits not by ‘squeezing’ efficiencies out of established companies, but instead by promoting ceaseless experimentation aimed at helping startups achieve ‘hypergrowth’. To date, there is limited empirical evidence of both how startups achieve hypergrowth, and the impact of these practices on organizations and workers. This article draws on 19 months of participant-observation research inside a venture-backed startup I call AllDone to trace the links between the institution of venture capital and the organization of work. Although AllDone executives engaged in cost-cutting strategies common to other financialized firms, they also developed distinctive corporate strategies and organizational structures. Each of the company’s three work teams was organized to perform interdependent functions in support of venture capital’s imperative for rapid and exponential asset value inflation. I conclude with a discussion of the article’s implications for research on venture capital, startup work, and the relationship between financialization and work more broadly.
{"title":"The labor of assetization: producing ‘hypergrowth’ inside a tech startup","authors":"Benjamin Shestakofsky","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae057","url":null,"abstract":"Venture capitalists maximize profits not by ‘squeezing’ efficiencies out of established companies, but instead by promoting ceaseless experimentation aimed at helping startups achieve ‘hypergrowth’. To date, there is limited empirical evidence of both how startups achieve hypergrowth, and the impact of these practices on organizations and workers. This article draws on 19 months of participant-observation research inside a venture-backed startup I call AllDone to trace the links between the institution of venture capital and the organization of work. Although AllDone executives engaged in cost-cutting strategies common to other financialized firms, they also developed distinctive corporate strategies and organizational structures. Each of the company’s three work teams was organized to perform interdependent functions in support of venture capital’s imperative for rapid and exponential asset value inflation. I conclude with a discussion of the article’s implications for research on venture capital, startup work, and the relationship between financialization and work more broadly.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142266467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study presents the first set of estimates of inequalities in high-status employment between UK districts and universities. Making use of graduate data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, this study compares how graduates’ employment and social mobility vary based on their place of origin and the university attended. Inequality and social mobility are measured by the chance of entering a higher professional occupation 15 months after graduation. The results showed that the occupation inequalities between universities were much larger than those between local authority districts, indicating that our higher education system is evidently (re)producing an even greater amount of inequality than spatial disparities. These findings contribute to the emerging academic and policy narrative regarding the social and geographic inequalities in the UK, addressing the inequalities in graduate employment across universities may be crucial in meeting the demands of the labor market and driving upward mobility throughout the country.
{"title":"Where are inequalities produced? Comparing the variations of graduate employment between the UK’s districts and universities","authors":"Yang Yu","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae052","url":null,"abstract":"This study presents the first set of estimates of inequalities in high-status employment between UK districts and universities. Making use of graduate data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, this study compares how graduates’ employment and social mobility vary based on their place of origin and the university attended. Inequality and social mobility are measured by the chance of entering a higher professional occupation 15 months after graduation. The results showed that the occupation inequalities between universities were much larger than those between local authority districts, indicating that our higher education system is evidently (re)producing an even greater amount of inequality than spatial disparities. These findings contribute to the emerging academic and policy narrative regarding the social and geographic inequalities in the UK, addressing the inequalities in graduate employment across universities may be crucial in meeting the demands of the labor market and driving upward mobility throughout the country.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142198238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Chapter XIII’s wage-earner payment plans are now the default form of personal bankruptcy in the USA. During the Great Depression, it was created as a voluntary choice and enacted with unanimous legislative support. Absent conflict between creditors and labor and social reformers, legislators agreed that Chapter XIII was for the benefit of both honorable insolvents and their fair creditors. How did wage-earner payment plans emerge out of a consensual legislative process? Employing a computational abductive approach on a wide range of legislative, media and bankruptcy records, I show that Chapter XIII’s creation was facilitated by a ‘moral accounting’ that, based on their race and gender identities, positively evaluated most White men bankruptcy petitioners as ‘deserving’, even as it recognized occupational variations in their economic ‘productivity’. This study highlights how racial discourses of ‘deservingness’ are central to the construction of credit markets as part of America’s submerged welfare state.
第 XIII 章的工薪族付款计划现已成为美国默认的个人破产形式。在经济大萧条时期，它是作为一种自愿选择而设立的，并在立法机构的一致支持下颁布实施。在债权人与劳工和社会改革者之间没有冲突的情况下，立法者一致认为第 XIII 章既有利于光荣的破产者，也有利于公平的债权人。工薪族付款计划是如何在协商一致的立法过程中产生的？通过对大量的立法、媒体和破产记录进行计算归纳，我发现第 XIII 章的制定得益于一种 "道德会计"，这种 "道德会计 "基于种族和性别身份，对大多数白人男性破产申请人给予了 "应得 "的积极评价，同时也承认了他们在经济 "生产力 "方面的职业差异。本研究强调了 "应得 "的种族论述如何成为构建信贷市场的核心，成为美国被淹没的福利国家的一部分。
{"title":"The moral accounting of debts: productivity, deservingness and the consensual creation of Chapter XIII bankruptcy","authors":"Nicholas A Pang","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae047","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae047","url":null,"abstract":"Chapter XIII’s wage-earner payment plans are now the default form of personal bankruptcy in the USA. During the Great Depression, it was created as a voluntary choice and enacted with unanimous legislative support. Absent conflict between creditors and labor and social reformers, legislators agreed that Chapter XIII was for the benefit of both honorable insolvents and their fair creditors. How did wage-earner payment plans emerge out of a consensual legislative process? Employing a computational abductive approach on a wide range of legislative, media and bankruptcy records, I show that Chapter XIII’s creation was facilitated by a ‘moral accounting’ that, based on their race and gender identities, positively evaluated most White men bankruptcy petitioners as ‘deserving’, even as it recognized occupational variations in their economic ‘productivity’. This study highlights how racial discourses of ‘deservingness’ are central to the construction of credit markets as part of America’s submerged welfare state.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141886641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent scholarship on the evolution of neoliberalism points out that, despite free market discourse, right-wing rule has often resulted in re-regulation and further market concentration, to the advantage of large corporations. This article argues that such an outcome is not an inevitable result of right-wing incumbency. Instead, I identify an exogenous, demographic, change that prompts right-wing governments to increasingly embrace market concentration: the aging of the workforce, which has intensified the substitution of capital for labor, and as a result, somewhat paradoxically, reduced the amount of pure profits that can be distributed to wealthy households. In response, right-wing governments restrict competition to shore up pure profits. Drawing on data from 14 to 20 OECD countries, I show that as workforce aging intensifies, right partisanship becomes increasingly associated with more regulatory restrictions on competition, greater market concentration, and a greater pure profit share of income.
{"title":"Why right-wing governments restrict market competition: a demographic theory","authors":"Jingjing Huo","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae049","url":null,"abstract":"Recent scholarship on the evolution of neoliberalism points out that, despite free market discourse, right-wing rule has often resulted in re-regulation and further market concentration, to the advantage of large corporations. This article argues that such an outcome is not an inevitable result of right-wing incumbency. Instead, I identify an exogenous, demographic, change that prompts right-wing governments to increasingly embrace market concentration: the aging of the workforce, which has intensified the substitution of capital for labor, and as a result, somewhat paradoxically, reduced the amount of pure profits that can be distributed to wealthy households. In response, right-wing governments restrict competition to shore up pure profits. Drawing on data from 14 to 20 OECD countries, I show that as workforce aging intensifies, right partisanship becomes increasingly associated with more regulatory restrictions on competition, greater market concentration, and a greater pure profit share of income.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141786232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The assetization of essential goods brings to high-income countries the logics of scarcity that have been dominant for long in low-to-middle income countries—fostering the rise of new forms of activism. Will this new activism strengthen already existing social movements or weaken them through more moderate politics? Building on interviews and the observation and mapping of activist events, we investigate this question through the case of pharmaceuticals. We detail how the assetization of pharmaceutical drugs has triggered the constitution of a new ‘flank’ in the access to medicines (A2M) movement—pharmaceutical transparency activism. We argue that transparency activism has expanded the contestation of the pharmaceutical state of affairs, by bringing into the broader A2M movement countries that were previously at the core of global pharmaceutical chains. Our article illuminates how the assetization of essential goods creates forms of activism that have significant impact on existing social movements.
{"title":"Countermovements from the core: the assetization of pharmaceuticals, transparency activism and the access to medicines movement","authors":"Théo Bourgeron, Susi Geiger","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae039","url":null,"abstract":"The assetization of essential goods brings to high-income countries the logics of scarcity that have been dominant for long in low-to-middle income countries—fostering the rise of new forms of activism. Will this new activism strengthen already existing social movements or weaken them through more moderate politics? Building on interviews and the observation and mapping of activist events, we investigate this question through the case of pharmaceuticals. We detail how the assetization of pharmaceutical drugs has triggered the constitution of a new ‘flank’ in the access to medicines (A2M) movement—pharmaceutical transparency activism. We argue that transparency activism has expanded the contestation of the pharmaceutical state of affairs, by bringing into the broader A2M movement countries that were previously at the core of global pharmaceutical chains. Our article illuminates how the assetization of essential goods creates forms of activism that have significant impact on existing social movements.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141192306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines how macroeconomic conditions affect inequality of educational opportunity. Using longitudinal data from 30 European countries and the USA, we study the effect of changing unemployment rates on the extent of social inequality in postsecondary transitions in the period (2004–2016), which includes the Great Recession. The findings from multilevel models with country fixed effects show that rising unemployment rates tend to increase social inequalities in postsecondary transitions, as youth from low-educated families have increased risk for exclusion from both employment and education, while the likelihood of postsecondary enrolment slightly rises for youth from higher-educated families. Yet, economic downturns also incentivize youth whose parents have middle level of education to opt for postsecondary education, especially in contexts where it is more affordable. Our findings suggest that changing opportunity costs and economic insecurity are the relevant factors to explain changing inequalities in access to postsecondary education during a recession.
{"title":"How does a poor labour market affect inequalities in access to postsecondary education? Empirical evidence from 31 affluent countries","authors":"Kristina Lindemann, Markus Gangl","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae032","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how macroeconomic conditions affect inequality of educational opportunity. Using longitudinal data from 30 European countries and the USA, we study the effect of changing unemployment rates on the extent of social inequality in postsecondary transitions in the period (2004–2016), which includes the Great Recession. The findings from multilevel models with country fixed effects show that rising unemployment rates tend to increase social inequalities in postsecondary transitions, as youth from low-educated families have increased risk for exclusion from both employment and education, while the likelihood of postsecondary enrolment slightly rises for youth from higher-educated families. Yet, economic downturns also incentivize youth whose parents have middle level of education to opt for postsecondary education, especially in contexts where it is more affordable. Our findings suggest that changing opportunity costs and economic insecurity are the relevant factors to explain changing inequalities in access to postsecondary education during a recession.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141150980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Correction to: Quality competition on markets: a socio-economic account","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae035","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141108124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Terri Friedline, Kimberlee Stewart, Carson Bolinger, Anna K. Wood
Financial technologies or ‘fintech’—an array of digital technologies ranging from mobile banking and digital payment systems to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies—are heralded for solving problems of access to financial products and services and improving people’s participation in the economy. However, we contend that fintech is an invasive infrastructure by learning from Indigenous theorizing of oil and gas pipelines alongside concepts of predatory inclusion and obfuscation. We use critical discourse analysis to study finance, technology and social media companies’ language over nearly three decades of newswires and press releases that promote new retail financial products and services. We develop themes of new products old promises, benevolent exploitation, efficient obfuscation and information extraction. Similar to oil and gas pipelines within the project of settler colonialism, our findings show how fintech operates as invasive infrastructure by serving as a key link for connecting oppressed and marginalized peoples to companies for predation and extraction.
{"title":"Fintech as invasive infrastructure: a critical discourse analysis of corporate newswires and press releases, 1995–2021","authors":"Terri Friedline, Kimberlee Stewart, Carson Bolinger, Anna K. Wood","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Financial technologies or ‘fintech’—an array of digital technologies ranging from mobile banking and digital payment systems to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies—are heralded for solving problems of access to financial products and services and improving people’s participation in the economy. However, we contend that fintech is an invasive infrastructure by learning from Indigenous theorizing of oil and gas pipelines alongside concepts of predatory inclusion and obfuscation. We use critical discourse analysis to study finance, technology and social media companies’ language over nearly three decades of newswires and press releases that promote new retail financial products and services. We develop themes of new products old promises, benevolent exploitation, efficient obfuscation and information extraction. Similar to oil and gas pipelines within the project of settler colonialism, our findings show how fintech operates as invasive infrastructure by serving as a key link for connecting oppressed and marginalized peoples to companies for predation and extraction.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141109860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Recent robotics and artificial intelligence advancements have exacerbated fears of technology-driven unemployment and inequality. However, the relationship between automation risks and regulatory policy support remains inconclusive. Moreover, the role of institutional safety net in shaping this connection, and factors influencing preference shifts regarding automation, remain understudied. This study conducts an online survey experiment in the UK and Sweden to address these gaps. First, we find subjective concern, and occupational risks combined with perceived weaker labor market safeguards, lead to calls for automation restriction and job loss compensation. These trends are particularly pronounced in the UK, where institutional protection for workers is less robust. Second, people support accelerating technology-driven change when they see its benefits shared widely, but this shift is mainly observed among individuals relatively safer from automation risks. Our findings suggest strengthening the institutional safety net and envisioning equitable benefit-sharing are crucial for moderating public anxiety toward technology-driven economic change.
{"title":"Luddite or technophile?—policy preferences for governing technology-driven economic change","authors":"Jaewook Lee","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Recent robotics and artificial intelligence advancements have exacerbated fears of technology-driven unemployment and inequality. However, the relationship between automation risks and regulatory policy support remains inconclusive. Moreover, the role of institutional safety net in shaping this connection, and factors influencing preference shifts regarding automation, remain understudied. This study conducts an online survey experiment in the UK and Sweden to address these gaps. First, we find subjective concern, and occupational risks combined with perceived weaker labor market safeguards, lead to calls for automation restriction and job loss compensation. These trends are particularly pronounced in the UK, where institutional protection for workers is less robust. Second, people support accelerating technology-driven change when they see its benefits shared widely, but this shift is mainly observed among individuals relatively safer from automation risks. Our findings suggest strengthening the institutional safety net and envisioning equitable benefit-sharing are crucial for moderating public anxiety toward technology-driven economic change.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140976145","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article demonstrates how presentations of self and the information conveyed within them are a conduit for risk evaluation within the marketplace. Using the case of check cashing, it investigates customer screening within the Detroit area’s most prevalent non-bank check cashing businesses, which are not standalone check cashing outlets but rather corner convenience and liquor stores known as ‘party stores’. Without algorithmic techniques based on hard or quantitative data, how do owners screen customers to prevent fraud? Drawing on 35 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this article uncovers two strategies toward this end: (a) gathering private information about customers through small talk; and (b) assessing check cashers’ presentations of self. Analyzing check cashing and fraud in this setting speaks to theoretical perspectives of risk evaluation by presenting a case of interactional fraud prevention, which highlights the interpersonal, interactional mechanisms through which soft information is exchanged and assessed in ex ante screening.
{"title":"‘It’s a who-you-know thing’: interactional fraud prevention in non-bank check cashing","authors":"Vance Alan Puchalski","doi":"10.1093/ser/mwae028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwae028","url":null,"abstract":"This article demonstrates how presentations of self and the information conveyed within them are a conduit for risk evaluation within the marketplace. Using the case of check cashing, it investigates customer screening within the Detroit area’s most prevalent non-bank check cashing businesses, which are not standalone check cashing outlets but rather corner convenience and liquor stores known as ‘party stores’. Without algorithmic techniques based on hard or quantitative data, how do owners screen customers to prevent fraud? Drawing on 35 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this article uncovers two strategies toward this end: (a) gathering private information about customers through small talk; and (b) assessing check cashers’ presentations of self. Analyzing check cashing and fraud in this setting speaks to theoretical perspectives of risk evaluation by presenting a case of interactional fraud prevention, which highlights the interpersonal, interactional mechanisms through which soft information is exchanged and assessed in ex ante screening.","PeriodicalId":47947,"journal":{"name":"Socio-Economic Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2024-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140935661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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