Apr 6, 2021 · 42 minIncreasingly, finance dominates the way we live our lives. Despite seeing, in recent years, growth in economies globally, more and more people are struggling to make ends meet. Inequality gaps continue to grow, and the bulk of income is concentrated among a small group.
The term ‘Financialization’ has become the go-term for scholars grappling with the growth and changing face of finance and its consequences. Some explain it as the domination of financial markets and institutions over other sectors of the economy. It has been described by some as ‘wonky’. However it is understood, it is a term that is increasingly used across academic disciplines, presenting varying viewpoints and approaches, and a useful analytical lens on politics, technology, culture, society and the economy.
In this episode of Between the Lines, Dinah Rajak speaks with Phil Mader and Natascha van der Zwan, about their vital new book ‘The Routledge International Handbook of Financialization’, which brings together scholars to interrogate different understandings of financialization and its impacts.
With thanks to:
Sarah King introduces the podcast.
Sarah King produces and edits the podcast series and created the artwork.
Music credit: Crypt of Insomnia/One Day in Africa (instrumental version)/Getty Images
Related links:
To build back better we must rein in Finacialization - Phil Mader
Making Sense of Finacialization - Natascha van der Zwan
Poverty Reduction of the Financialization of Poverty - Phil Mader
Financialisation and the Pension System: Lessons from the United States and the Netherlands - Natascha van der Zwan
Interviewer:
Dinah Rajak a Reader in anthropology and development at the University of Sussex. Her current research explores, entrepreneurship, youth employment, 'bottom of the pyramid' approaches to development and concepts of inclusive markets. She is co-founder of the Centre for New Economies of Development, author of In Good Company: An Anatomy of Corporate Social Responsibility and co-editor of The Anthropology of Corporate Social Responsibility (Berghahn 2016).
Book editors:
Philip Mader is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (Brighton, UK) and program convenor of the MA in Globalisation, Business and Development. His research focuses on development and the politics of markets. His PhD from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the University of Cologne was published as The Political Economy of Microfinance: Financializing Poverty (Palgrave, 2015) and was recognized with the Otto Hahn Medal and the German Thesis Award.
Natascha van der Zwan is Assistant Professor in Public Administration at Leiden University. She does comparative and historical research on financialization and pension systems, investment rules and regulations, and pension fund capitalism. Her article ``Making Sense of Financialization'' (Socio-Economic Review, 2014) has become a key article in scholarship on financialization and is widely used in university courses. Dr Van der Zwan holds a PhD in Political Science from the New School for Social Research.
Daniel Mertens is Professor of International Political Economy at the University of Osnabrück. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at Goethe University Frankfurt and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University. He received his PhD from the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and the University of Cologne. His work ranges from the politics of credit markets and banking to analyses of the modern tax state and has been published in outlets such as the Journal of European Public Policy, New Political Economy and Competition & Change.
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