Title: Looking forward: on the uses of forecasting in market formation

Authors: Sine N. Just; Nico Mouton; Jonas Gabrielsen

Addresses: Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Porcelænshaven 24, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark ' Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, Postboks 260, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark ' Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University, Universitetsvej 1, Postboks 260, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

Abstract: Forecasts are central to processes of market formation; they partake in the performativity of markets by visualising market developments and directing market actors' gaze towards these developments. Thus, forecasting is a certain way of looking that may be said to bring into being what it sees - market formation in the future tense, so to speak. In this paper, we seek to substantiate this claim by exploring four functions of forecasting: creating the future, avoiding the past, making (the) present, and casting forecasters. The exploration is conceptually guided, but finds an empirical focal point in the case of the Danish real estate market.

Keywords: forecasting; real estate markets; rhetoric; economics performativity; market formation; visualisation; Denmark.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCP.2013.056502

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2013 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.224 - 244

Published online: 24 Sep 2013 *

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