ANTH 127. Cultures of Contemporary Finance

Finance, a set of practices and institutions traditionally associated with credit, banking, and stock market investments, has changed dramatically in the last 50 years. Many observers use terms such as "financialization", "global finance", or "financial risk" to conceptualize different aspects of the newness of contemporary finance. This seminar begins with three apparently simple questions: What is unique about finance in the present? How is it shaping individual lives and the social world we inhabit? How is it shaped by individual and collective practices? This course explores these questions through a set of texts that approach finance as a social and cultural - as opposed to exclusively economic - phenomenon. Through a combination of multidisciplinary approaches, the course will offer students a set of critical and analytical tools to understand the preeminent role of finance as a social force in the present. This seminar is designed both for students interested in economics and finance, as well as students broadly interested in understanding the transformations of capitalism and the socio-economic and political forces that shape daily life around the globe. The seminar invites the rigorous exploration of the myriad ways in which contemporary finance is transforming a wide array of social domains, from politics to justice and accountability, from our imaginative to our knowledge making practices.
Social sciences.
2 credits.
Catalog chapter: Sociology and Anthropology
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/sociology-anthropology

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