Abstract (EN)

The case examined here is the expansion of the US pension funds. Pension funds are generally considered both creatures of capital/labour compromises and powerful financial actors (Clark, 2000). So they seem to be located at the junction of two distinct social spaces (labour relations and financial work). Tensions between these spaces interact in everyday transactions as well as in investment policies, governance and the constitutional status of pension funds. I will show that investment policies and governance of pension funds are definitively influenced by the fact that pension funds are labour compromises. So, financial practices and beliefs of the pension industry are directly shaped by interest and conflicts between non-financial agents, workers and employers. In the words of Abbott, struggles between labour and employers come first; pension industry as a financial sphere emerges from their negotiations.