The price of value and the value of price. Study of the modes of real estate valuation in a large French bankruptcy (1977-1982).

Summary This paper proposes to reconstruct the sale of a set of warehouses, stores and leasehold rights in the context of a bankruptcy. Drawing on the work of Richard and ANT, this paper shows how valuation methods are inseparable from the position that each actor (including the firms mobilized to help set the fairest value) occupies in complex relationships. A discussion puts the previous observations into perspective: first by questioning the information that each mode of valuation conveys, then by questioning the impossible valuation of goods, then by highlighting the underlying function of valuation and finally by showing how this operation announces the financialization of the economy where we still are today.