Financialization as social reproduction. For a feminist anthropology of finance

Abstract

This article aims to introduce the reader to the anthropology of finance in its contemporary dimension of financialization. Through the lens of the feminist manifesto “GENS” (Bear et al. 2015), the author proposes a reading of ethnographies that highlights the interconnectedness of individuals’ agency, projects of social reproduction, power hierarchies, and processes of money accumulation. Moreover, the article how the financial industry reproduces race, gender, and class inequalities both within societies and on a global scale, becoming increasingly pervasive in development discourse. The article is divided into three parts based on the relationship between individuals and the financial valuation process they engage in. It analyzes the experts who work within financial institutions; the social reproduction processes of the working classes increasingly reliant on credit and debt mechanisms introduced by financial capitalism; and the people excluded from global financial dynamics, whose financial inclusion is considered the most effective tool to escape poverty by governments and international organizations.