ABSTRACT
Risks are one of the cornerstones of modern day capitalism and some would even say modernity. The social studies of finance have focused on investments rather than risks. One of the main strands of research is the diffusion of knowledge practices. This chapter brings together the uncontrollability of risks with work on knowledge practices in finance. It shows how the perception of risk control can lead to financial losses and how risk managers have different rationalities of the related risks. Similar to the studies of trading rooms and asset management, different rationalities existed alongside each other in risk management. This could even be the case within the same person, with a practice that seems to contradict a definition. To understand risks, we need to go beyond the knowledge practice. We need to look at the actions of the risk managers. The knowledge practices had effects. However, their usage depended on the situation at hand.
