Dissertation Research: Worldview of Investment Banks

这篇由普林斯顿大学文化人类学专业的学生进行的论文研究项目将对投资银行家和华尔街其他行为者(包括大众媒体代表以及当地人员)的世界观和修辞进行人种学研究。该项目将分析“华尔街”对通过公司重组以及全球就业模式和财富集中度的变化而发生的全面社会和经济变化的看法。特别关注的是华尔街言论的构建，这使得重组和裁员，以及它们造成的社会和经济动荡，在效率的名义下似乎是合法的和必要的。这名学生之前曾在一家投资银行工作，他将对总体观点进行一般性的参与者观察和结构化采访，特别是对一个特定事件的看法，以捕捉多种相互竞争的世界观和行动，并阐明在裁员、不稳定和不平等的情况下涉及的实际斗争和权力关系。该项目将在华尔街参与者的理解和行动与参与者所从事的社会关系之间建立重要的联系，并将通过探索世界观和经济行为之间的关系来帮助理解“全球资本主义”。

This dissertation research project by a cultural anthropology student at Princeton University will conduct an ethnographic study of the world views and rhetoric of investment bankers and other actors on Wall Street (including popular media representations as well as the local personnel). The project will analyze `Wall Street's` views of the sweeping social and economic changes occurring through corporate restructuring and changing global employment patterns and wealth concentrations. The particular focus is the construction of Wall Street rhetoric which makes restructuring and downsizing and the social and economic upheavals they create seem legitimate and necessary in the name of efficiency. The student, who previously worked in an investment bank, will conduct general participant observation and structured interviewing on views in general and on one particular event in particular, to capture the multiple and competing world views and actions and shed light on the actual struggles and power relations involved in a case of downsizing, instability and inequality. The project will make an important connection between the understandings and actions of Wall Street actors and the social relations in which the actors are engaged, and will contribute to understanding `global capitalism` by exploring the relationships between world view and economic behavior.