Finance: cultural or political?

ABSTRACT

What is the use of calling ‘cultural’ the set of habits, worldviews, practices, struggles and processes that go today by the name of ‘finance’? Cannot the subject matter be dealt with more aptly with the word ‘political’, especially if the objective is to add some critical traction and contribute to political articulation? Drawing from a few old conversations on the subject matter (and from a couple of arguably new problems), a plea for the ‘cultural’ is nonetheless offered, with special reference to the disorientating role that ‘political economy’ and the concept of ‘value’ play in the debate.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural economy
• political economy
• value
• culture
• finance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The question was certainly reiterated at the January 2020 workshop ‘Twenty Years After: The Workshop On Cultural Economy’ at City, University of London. I thank Toby Bennett and Liz McFall for their generous invitation and their comments, and Carolyn Hardin for her helpful remarks. The thoughts presented here were offered there with a more personal note. A recording is available from the workshop’s website here: https://www.journalofculturaleconomy.org/twenty-years-after-the-workshop-on-cultural-economy-2/ [Accessed 12 April 2021].

2 See Toby Bennett’s interview with Michael Pryke and Paul du Gay in this issue.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fabian Muniesa

Fabian Muniesa is Research Director at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation, Ecole des Mines de Paris, author of The Provoked Economy: Economic Reality and the Performative Turn (Routledge, 2014) and Chair of the Journal of Cultural Economy Editorial Board.