Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lawrence, Geoffrey

Titel

Defending financialization

Ist Teil von

• Dialogues in human geography, 2015-07, Vol.5 (2), p.201-205

Ort / Verlag

London, England: SAGE Publications

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• In his review of the application of the term ‘financialization’, Christophers points to the limits of the concept in providing conceptual clarity about global change. Analytically, it is viewed as being so nebulous as to be meaningless. Theoretically, it is equivalent to ‘reinventing the wheel’: many existing ideas have more clarity and explanatory power. Strategically, it has diverted attention from the more important study of money. Its empirical significance and historical importance appear to have been exaggerated. Finally, financialization as a real-world process is criticized for its totalizing tendencies, with the ‘financialization of everything’ being a logical conclusion for many of its adherents. In response to Christophers’ claims, I argue that financialization is a concept-in-the-making. It has not received the same attention, at this stage, as intellectually rich concepts such as globalization and neo-liberalism. Rather than abandoning the term, social scientists should undertake more carefully crafted studies that provide empirically grounded understandings of the motives, dynamics and impacts of financialization.