Workshop on Money Professionals. How professionals in economics, finance, tax and law gain and practice expertise and authority

On October 26-27, the TAXLAW team and the Centre for the Study of Professions at OsloMet organised the workshop Money Professionals. How professionals in economics, finance, tax and law gain and practice expertise and authority.

Researchers from different countries and institutions were invited to a two-day workshop at Lysebu hotel in Oslo, Norway. In addition to the TAXLAW team, the participants were Lola Avril (European University Institute), Karen Boll (Dept. of Organization, Copenhagen Business School), Rasmus Corlin Christensen (Dept. of Organization, Copenhagen Business School), Valérie Boussard (Dept. of Sociology, Nanterre University), Pascale Cornut-St Pierre (Dept. of Civil Law, University of Ottawa), Daniel Muzio (School for Business and Society, University of York), Jean-Philippe Robé (Sciences Po Law School), Saila Stausholm (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies), Silje M. Tellmann (Dept. of Business, History and Social Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway), Giorgio Norlemann Baldari (Centre for the Study of Professions/OsloMet) and Kristin Vikan Sjurgard (Centre for the Study of Professions/OsloMet).

A wide range of studies was presented, all empirically well-founded and theoretically developing scholarship on professionals working with money in different institutional contexts and fields of expertise.

Sociology of the professions, sociology of expertise, sociology of law, sociology of the state and economic sociology approach the power of experts in different ways. In this workshop, we aimed at combining questions and knowledge from these different fields to gain new insight into the role of experts in society. The presentations were works in progress that addressed these themes from various angles and using a variety of data (e.g. quantitative, interviews, ethnographies, and document studies).

From the TAXLAW team, Corentin and Marte presented a paper on the relationship between the tax law expertise of the French state and the private sector, Jérôme and Corentin presented a paper on neutral spaces and cross-sectorial expertise within tax law in France, and Len and Helle presented a paper on gender barriers and career mobility among Norwegian tax lawyers.

The organisation of the workshop was part of our aim of building a research network of social scientists who study professions working within the fields of tax, economy, law, and finance in different contexts. The workshop was very enjoyable and academically stimulating, and this network will be an important research community for TAXLAW in the years to come.