Encountering Financialisation: Some Reflections on Method

by Emma Dowling (Middlesex University, London)

Whilst the term financialisation has been in heavy circulation at least since the onset of the global financial crisis, it is still predominantly considered a terrain for economic ‘experts’, a discourse that removes finance and its workings from public debate and democratic decision-making processes. ‘Finance’ immediately draws us into the macro-political-economic realms of banking, financial markets and their regulation, or to fiscal and monetary policy. All too frequently, studies of finance, even critical ones, largely remain within this. However, following finance (and financialisation), we are quickly confronted with the myriad ways in which socialities and livelihoods are produced and reproduced in a globalised, transnational context. This paper discusses a methodology of ‘encountering financialisation’ and subsequently elaborates on the sites/insights that emerge.