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Forms of Ethics, Shapes of Finance (completed)

Oljeinnstallasjon i havet. Illustrasjon.

Photo: DreamPictures.

About the project

Recent years have seen a range of efforts to act upon institutions and consumers to transform the broader economy. Many of these efforts are ethical endeavours that appeal to 'the common good' or invoke moral notions to facilitate societies, futures, and worlds of particular kinds. At the same time, these efforts echo and extend from economic discourses regarding 'the public good' or 'the public interest', which point to a broader articulation between ethics and the economy.

This project explores how ethical forms shape finance to create new iterations of the economy, and how financial forms entail ethical concerns. Its case of study is the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global - better known as the oil-fund - which currently is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.

Objectives

The project combines ethnographic fieldwork with document analysis and archival research in order to investigate the limits that different actors impose on the oil-fund to shape its financial flows. The project consists of four components. The first sub-project explores the limits that the agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ('the Paris agreement') impose on the oil-fund. The second sub-project researches the limits imposed by the fund's Council on Ethics. The third project investigates the role of ethical frameworks for the work of Norges Bank on monetary policy, and the fourth project analyses the role of the Council on Ethics in the global Responsible Investment Industry. 

The primary objective is to provide empirical insights into how finance and the economy are constituted through processes where ethical forms play constitutive roles. A secondary objective is to provide an analytical and methodological framework that can handle, study, and reconceptualize the relationship between ethics and the economy. In addition, the project aims to facilitate, foster, and participate in a public debate regarding the political challenges and ethical opportunities pertaining to the existence and practices of the fund.

Outcomes

The project will provide empirical and methodological insights into the diversity of agents and relations that different efforts to delimit the fund involve, and the ways in which they constitute finance and the economy in specific ways. It also aims to contribute to broader debates regarding the legitimacy of profitmaking and the ways in which this can recast the market as an ethical landscape. 

Sub-projects

  • The Government Pension Fund Global and the Paris Agreement
  • The Council of Ethics and the Government Pension Fund Global
  • Ethics and the Public Interest
  • The Global Role of the Council of Ethics

Financing

The project is financed by the SAMKUL-programme of the Research Council of Norway.

Cooperation

The project involves researchers based at the Museum of Cultural History, State University of New York Binghamton, and Stockholm University, who cooperate with researchers based at the University of Oslo, the University College of Oslo and Akershus, and the University of Toronto.

Publications

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  • Myhre, Knut Christian & Holmes, Douglas R. (2023). Redescribing the corporation: Ownership, productive incompleteness, and the future in Norway's sovereign wealth fund.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2023). Anthropology, Productive Incompleteness and the Twilight of Liberalism.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2023). Accommodating Others: Ethnographic Explorations of Lysningen at Utøya.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2023). Affording Others: Ethnographic Explorations of Lysningen at Utøya.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2022). Statens pensjonsfond utland og samfunnskontrakten: Innledende betraktninger.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2022). The Norwegian Oil Fund and the Social Contract.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian & Holmes, Douglas R. (2022). Great Expectations: How the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Redescribes the Corporation in Times of Crisis.
  • Holmes, Douglas R. & Myhre, Knut Christian (2022). The Concept of the Corporation: Anthropological Perspectives.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2022). Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2022). Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian & Evjemo, Eivind Hofstad (2022). Forord, Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet. Cappelen Damm AS. ISSN 9788202710903. p. 6–12.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian & Evjemo, Eivind Hofstad (2022). Etter Ord, Rikdommens språk: tekster om Oljefondet. Cappelen Damm AS. ISSN 9788202710903. p. 162–177.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2021). Great Expectations, How the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund Redescribes the Corporation in a Time of Crisis.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2020). Om tillit og Tangen-debatten. Dagens næringsliv. ISSN 0803-9372. p. 38–38.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2020). Fattigslig finans. Dagens næringsliv. ISSN 0803-9372. p. 79–79.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2020). From Ethics to Sustainability: Reflections from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2020). Sovereign wealth and custodial finance in Norway. Anthropology News. ISSN 1541-6151. doi: 10.1111/AN.1411.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2019). Oljefondets subtile forventninger. Dagens næringsliv. ISSN 0803-9372. p. 34–34.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2019). Reframing Welfare: Expectations, Collaboration, and Ownership at the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2019). Reframing Welfare: Expectations, Communication, and Ownership at the World's Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2019). Trenger ikke kunne finans for å ha en mening om Oljefondet. [Newspaper]. Dagens perspektiv.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2018). The Norwegian oil fund and the contemporary social contract .
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2018). Financialisation and the welfare state: The case of the Norwegian oil fund.
  • Begim, Ainur (2017). Household Finances, Offshore Money, and Bonds of Kinship in Financialized Central Asia.
  • Begim, Ainur (2017). How to Retire Like a Soviet Person: Informality, Household Finances, and Kinship in Financialized Kazakhstan.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2017). Forms of Ethics, Shapes of Finance: Ethnographic Explorations of the Limits of Contemporary Capital.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian & Gullbekk, Svein H. (2017). Oljefondet og kriseberedskap. Dagens næringsliv. ISSN 0803-9372. p. 26–26.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2017). Enactments of Transparency.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2017). The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global and Its Public.
  • Myhre, Knut Christian (2017). Drømmen om impact.

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Published June 1, 2017 4:28 PM - Last modified Feb. 9, 2021 10:11 AM

Participants

Detailed list of participants
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