AANA18125U Cancelled Anthropology of Finance

How does finance shape markets, institutions and daily life across the globe? How and with what social implications have credit and debt become the most significant commodities in contemporary capitalism?  What worldviews, forms of government and subjectivities emerge from the processes through which finance extends its influence? In recent decades, the development of finance capitalism has resulted in a shift in income generation away from manufacturing and commerce and towards the trading of money and financial assets. This shift has not only resulted in a general reorientation in profit making and a growing influence of institutions trading with money (e.g. investment banks, hedge funds, rating and auditing companies), but also in an increasing financialization of everyday life. Private households are drawn into financial markets by mortgages, pension funds and consumer loans. The anthropology of finance consists of an interdisciplinary set of approaches aimed at analyzing not only the mechanisms within, but also the world-views, networks, practices and far-reaching sociocultural, political and economic implications of this development. In this course, we aim to unpack the field and counter prevailing assumptions by ‘siting’ finance in various national and social contexts. The course identifies the variety of forms that finance might take but also analyses social implications in terms of inequality, influence of neoliberal logics and debt problems. We will analyze the various levels of finance including market logics and corporate forms and as well as the commodification of everyday life, where finance has increasingly become ‘us’. Throughout, we will engage in critical theoretical reflections on the relationships across both the scales and domains involved in financialization. The format consists of teacher introductions, interactive class activities, oral and written assignments which requires students’ active participation.