Financialization's services firms: fragmented organization and calculated profits accountability in the real estate sector

The financial crisis of 2007 has brought questions about the social order in capitalist societies back into the limelight. Economic sociology in particular emphasizes the growing influence of financial markets' actors and logics. Most research focuses on macro phenomena or intra-organizational and individual perspectives. In contrast, concepts of financialization that explicitly take an inter-organizational perspective are in their infancy. Therefore, this article investigates the business and financing practices of a Europe-wide real estate firm. The historic case study shows the importance of service firms in the real estate sector and analyzes cooperation between different financial service firms (banks, estate agents, notaries, auditing firms, customers). Furthermore, it investigates how they jointly organize border-crossing and the relocation of legal liabilities and economic accountability. The article thus contributes to the current financialization debate in two ways: for one, it analyzes and explains inter-organizational cooperation between different service firms as being constitutive for financialization dynamics. For another, it points to the importance of calculative practices for establishing financialized corporations.