Nathan Coombs Email & Phone Number

I am an economic sociologist working at the intersection of political economy, science and technology studies, and social theory. My research addresses contemporary transformations in economic governance and interrogates the implications of scientized knowledge and expertise for public accountability and democracy. I have an emerging research interest in the financial dimensions of public health governance, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.After receiving a PhD in Political Theory, published as History and Event (2015) by Edinburgh University Press, I was awarded a research grant from the Leverhulme Trust (2014-17) to investigate the regulation of financial trading algorithms. I have published 14 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Economy and Society, The British Journal of Sociology, Theory & Event, The European Legacy, Journal of Political Ideologies, and International Review of Economics Education, among others. In 2015 I co-founded Finance and Society, which is today a leading journal in the interdisciplinary field of finance studies. In 2023 I became a Director of Finance and Society Network Limited, which oversees the journal as well as the Network's annual conferences. With Matthias Thiemann, I guest edited a special issue of Economy and Society in 2022 titled 'Recentering central banks', which breaks new ground by exploring how the governance techniques of central banks condition the limits of state sovereignty. I am co-director of the Centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy (SKAPE) from 2022-25 and co-investigator on the project 'Scoping Impact' (2023) for the ESRC. I am the course organiser for two undergraduate honours courses (Economic Sociology and Sociology of Freedom), Sociology's Academic Advisor, and the School of Social and Political Science's Director of Undergraduate Programmes. I have supervised 3 PhD students through to their awards.I am currently writing a second book, provisionally titled The Impossible Performance of Financial Stability. My book is organised around the thesis that financial stability governance, on the model established after the 2008 financial crisis, cannot realise the stable financial system it aims to secure. Despite adopting an institutional machinery modelled on the performative power of monetary policymaking, this scientized approach to financial stability governance is marked by constitutive exclusions such as an inability to recognise how the actions of states and central banks have played a key role in the financialization of the economy.

Listed skills include Political Analysis, Copy Editing, Research, Presentations, and 28 others.