‘No one to trust’: the cultural embedding of atomism in financial markets

Ailon, Galit

doi:10.1111/1468-4446.12382

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…This was originally due to the qualitative nature of the FoEL literature, using single-sited ethnographies and interviews, with the vast majority of studies conducted in the UK and the US. These were later complemented by studies outside of these contexts, such as France (Lazarus, 2017), Italy (Di Feliciantonio, 2016), the Czech Republic (Samec, 2018), Poland (Lewicki, 2014), Hungary (Pellandini-Simanyi et al, 2015), Chile (Gonzalez, 2015), Israel (Ailon, 2019;Weiss, 2015), Argentine (Fridman, 2017), China (Maso, 2015), and Singapore (Lai, 2016(Lai, , 2017, among others.…”

Section: Geographies Of Financial Subjectivitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies, in turn, showed that the neoliberal, financially perceptive and autonomous subject positions are embraced by people themselves (e.g. Cook et al., 2009; Fridman, 2017; Ailon, 2019; Roscoe, 2015). This suggests a mixed picture of willing vs reluctant financialisation across contexts and raises the question, not addressed so far due to the qualitative nature of these studies, of which of these relations to financialisation is more widespread.…”

Section: The Financialisation Of Everyday Life: the Ideal Financialised Subject Vs The Lived Experience Of Financialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While many of these suggested that the ideal financialised subjects of neoliberal discourse do indeed emerge in real life (e.g. Ailon, 2019; Cook et al., 2009; Fridman, 2017; Roscoe, 2015), others pointed to opposite tendencies. They suggested that rather than readily embracing these subjectivities, people unwillingly adopt them because they see no other option; appropriate and negotiate them; or openly resist them (Coppock, 2013; Di Feliciantonio, 2016; Gonzalez, 2015; Hillig, 2019; Montgomerie and Tepe-Belfrage, 2017, 2019; Pellandini et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reluctant financialisaton: Financialisaton without financialised subjectivities in Hungary and the United States

Pellandini-Simányi

Banai

2020

Environ Plan A

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The Foucauldian literature on the ‘financialisation of everyday life’ has documented the way neoliberal discourses and practices call forth willing entrepreneurial-investorial and debtor financialised subjects. However, recent qualitative studies on the lived experiences of financialisation suggested that financialised households are often unwilling to adopt the subjectivities of neoliberal discourse (which we call ‘reluctant financialisation’) and only selectively draw on their elements (referred to as ‘variegated subjectivities’). This paper uses quantitative data to examine whether willing or reluctant financialisation is more widespread and if there are geographical, cross-country differences; and to assess the ‘variegated subjectivities’ argument. We conduct two studies: in the first, we compare the extent to which financialised households embrace key aspects of the financialised subjectivities called forth by neoliberal discourse in the mature financialised economy of the United States vs newly financialising Hungary. In the second, we examine the ‘variegated subjectivities’ hypothesis in Hungary. Our results show, first, that the majority of financialised households do not hold the financialised subject position fostered by neoliberal discourse. Second, they lend support to the ‘variegated subjectivities’ hypothesis. This means that reluctance, rather than whole-hearted embracement of neoliberal subjectivities is the main experience of financialisation. Household financialisation is neither driven nor legitimised by households ‘buying into’ neoliberal discourses. Although this may indicate a larger resistance potential in everyday life than previously assumed, we suggest a more negative interpretation: that of ‘domesticated neoliberalism’, which does not require neoliberal subjects but co-opts households’ existing moral economies.

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Section: Geographies Of Financial Subjectivitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Financialisation Of Everyday Life: the Ideal Financialised Subject Vs The Lived Experience Of Financialisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reluctant financialisaton: Financialisaton without financialised subjectivities in Hungary and the United States

Pellandini-Simányi

Banai

2020

Environ Plan A

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“…It follows, therefore, that organizations cannot be understood as morally toxic yet peopled by the occasional virtuous free spirit. Much current scholarship on morality in organizational settings would suggest just this, arguing that moral rectitude is dependent upon developing an individual, subjective ethical agency that is free from the corrosive restrictions of organizational accountabilities and bureaucratic structures (Ailon, 2019;Eggebø, 2013;Rhodes and Wray-Bliss, 2013). My account of the sociomaterial dimension of morality supplements Du Gay's (2000Gay's ( , 2008 spirited rehabilitation of Weber, a contrary voice in this debate.…”

Section: Discussion: Sociomateriality and Organizational Moralitymentioning

confidence: 86%

How ‘matter matters’ for morality: The case of a stock exchange

Roscoe

2020

Human Relations

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While matter clearly matters to organization theory, its absence from the study of organizational ethics is striking. Despite the obdurate materiality of the workplace, critical scholarship on organizations and morality sees ethics as interpersonal, subjective and embodied. Organizations, meanwhile, are characterized by moral anomie and dysfunction. This article advances our understanding of the material entanglements of organizational morality, drawing on the science and technology studies inflected study of markets to show how moral orders arise in dialectic between the social and the material. It argues that moral orders are entangled in the material infrastructures of organizations. Its empirical case is the founding and development of a small-company focused stock exchange, OFEX, launched in London in 1995, accessed through elite interviews and documentary work. The article seeks to develop our understanding of morality in critical organization studies, to further defend the Weberian notion of ‘ethics of office’ by emphasizing the sociomaterial dimension of organizational morality, and to contribute to an ongoing renaissance of the study of morality as a sociological phenomenon. There are implications for managers and engaged scholars alike.

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“…Strikingly, despite acknowledging that individuals engage with aspects of the investorial subject to a differing degree (Pellandini-Simanyi and Banai, 2020) and should not be categorised as 'risk-averse or passive' (Lai, 2017: 927) when not accumulating financial assets and choosing instead to invest in properties, a consequent conceptual development of differential subjectivities and practices into varied financial subject positions is missing. One underlying reasoning might be that qualitative studies have tended to focus on debt (Di Felicantono, 2016;Penaloza and Barnhart, 2011) or one aspect of asset ownership, such as homeownership (Pellandini-Simanyi et al, 2015;Samec, 2018) or non-professional trading (Ailon, 2019;Roscoe, 2015), without integrating a broader set of investment decisions. However, a holistic view of asset management is essential as can be seen in a recent study which revealed that distrusting financial investments did not translate into rejecting them but in an adjustment of the asset portfolio, excluding financial investments which are considered high risk and including non-financial investments which are seen as controllable due to being managed by oneself (Hillig, 2019b).…”

Section: 'Activity Of Conducting': the Everyday Investormentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Locked in the Rat Race’: Variegated financial subjectivities in the United Kingdom

Agunsoye

2021

Environ Plan A

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In the past four decades, the UK welfare state has been continuously reduced while asset ownership has gained in importance. Rather than relying on publicly funded welfare when not working, individuals are expected to mitigate future risks such as ill health, unemployment or old-age poverty through accumulating assets. Previous research employing a Foucauldian governmentality framework has explored how these norms of asset accumulation come into being through institutional changes and discourses. Documenting the narratives and practices of 60 UK individuals and bringing in an understanding of resistance being immanent in power technologies, the author sets out two key contributions to the everyday financialisation literature. First, this paper is the first study to conceptualise differential financial discourses and practices as distinct subject positions within the realms of financialisation. Due to feeling ‘trapped’ in having to provide financial security themselves, governable subjects amend asset norms to their own needs. Five subject positions emerged from the complex interplay between norms of conduct and counter-conduct. Second, these variegated financial subjectivities and practices are, it is argued, not only deviating from a theorised investor subject but are also necessary for everyday financialisation to take place. Counter-conduct helps to smoothen ambiguities inherent in norms of conduct, enabling asset accumulation and reinforcing a welfare system based on individual responsibility.

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‘No one to trust’: the cultural embedding of atomism in financial markets

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Reluctant financialisaton: Financialisaton without financialised subjectivities in Hungary and the United States

Reluctant financialisaton: Financialisaton without financialised subjectivities in Hungary and the United States

How ‘matter matters’ for morality: The case of a stock exchange

‘Locked in the Rat Race’: Variegated financial subjectivities in the United Kingdom

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