The Sociology of Crude Oil Prices

• In Event: Economic Sociology Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Roundtable 4: Money, Finance, and Valuation

Abstract

Crude oil is arguably the most important commodity in the world, yet it remains vastly understudied by economic sociologists and sociologists of markets. This paper addresses this lacuna by reframing extant economic literature on oil markets within sociological theories on price and the role of expectations in markets. The paper begins by describing the multiple, physical and financial, layers of activity in the market, as well as the myriad price forms these produce. It sketches the broad pricing agencement that constructs the global crude oil price through the coordinated use of various prostheses. It then uses concepts from the sociology of markets to examine how prices – particualry in oil derivatives – act as boundary objects, constraining or enabling action and prediction among different actors. In making this analysis, the paper argues that the crude oil pricing agencement is a critical mechanism producing the distinction between who gets to define the energy future and who must live with the future that has been defined for them.

Author

• David L. Pinzur, London School of Economics and Political Science