Trillions out of ones and zeros: The sociology of finance encounters the digital age

Abstract

Global finance stands today as an exemplar of digital life, a system of knowledge, institutions and practices whose very existence hinges on the seamless streams of binary data that intertwine investors, analysts and trading venues across the world. From the ubiquitous glow of trading screens to the sophisticated servers and computer systems that populate stock exchanges, from the portable devices used by traders to enter buy and sell orders into the market to the transatlantic cables that distribute signals across sea and land, contemporary finance is clearly defined by digital technologies and the forms of action that occur through them.