ABSTRACT
In the case of economic ventures, success can be understood as the reproduction of the resources for undertaking future ventures, and it can be measured by the ventures' eventual profitability. This chapter discusses that financial risks constitute a particular type of social risk and that they therefore depend on a certain type of organisation of society. It retraces the production of the technologies that are today available for harnessing financial risks. The chapter shows that the social conditions in which the technologies are being implemented play a crucial role in the ability of economic actors to protect themselves against the undesirable outcomes of financial uncertainty. It examines symbolic instruments and considers how they have become embedded in the social context formed by financial professions. Financial asset prices are social facts to the largest extent of the term. They originate from the cognitive tools by which agents measure the value of goods, and result from competing valuations during market interactions.
