How to Build a Stock Exchange - Public Lecture by Professor Philip Roscoe

Join us for a public lecture by Professor Philip Roscoe, RSSS Visiting Fellow in Sociology, on his book How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance (2023). 

About the Book 

Why is finance so important? How do stock markets work and what do they really do? Most importantly, what might finance be and what could we expect from it? 

Exploring contemporary finance via the development of stock exchanges, markets and the links with states, Roscoe mingles historical and technical detail with humorous anecdotes and lively portraits of market participants.

Deftly combining research and autobiographical vignettes, he offers a cautionary tale about the drive of financial markets towards expropriation, capture and exclusion. Positioning financial markets as central devices in the organisation of the global economy, he includes contemporary concerns over inequality, climate emergency and (de)colonialism and concludes by wondering, in the market’s own angst-filled voice, what the future for finance might be, and how we might get there.

About the Speaker

Philip Roscoe is a Professor of Management at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. With a diverse academic background, he holds a PhD in Management from Lancaster University, an MPhil in Medieval Arabic Thought from the University of Oxford, and a BA in Theology from the University of Leeds.

Before academia, he worked as a financial journalist and ran a small business, experiences that shaped his research interests in markets, finance, and the social structures underpinning economic life. His work explores how markets function beyond traditional economic models, incorporating insights from sociology, history, and philosophy.

A committed public intellectual, Philip was selected as one of the inaugural AHRC BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers in 2011. He writes widely for both academic and general audiences, contributing opinion pieces, reviews, and broadcast work.

This event will be held in person only.