Overview

In the US and UK, saving and borrowing routines have changed radically and become closely bound-up with the capital markets of global finance. As mutual funds have increased in popularity and pension provision has been transformed, many more individuals and households have come to invest in stocks and shares. As consumer borrowing has risen dramatically and mortgage finance has been extended to those deemed sub-prime, so the repayments of credit card holders and mortgagors have provided the basis for the issue and trading of bonds and other market instruments. The Everyday Life of Global Finance explores the unprecedented relationships that now bind society and the markets, challenging the dominant tendency to simply position recent developments in Wall Street and the City of London at the centre of contemporary finance. Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, drawing on the social theory of Callon, Foucault, and Latour, and informed by extensive empirical research, the book shows how global finance has become mundane and ordinary in Anglo-America. Finance is not 'out there somewhere', but is embedded in the calculative technologies and performances of reconfigured saving and borrowing networks, and is embodied through the assembly of everyday financial identities and self-disciplines. Society's new-found relationships with the financial markets are also shown, however, to be marked by stark inequalities, manifest contradictions, and political dissent. The Everyday Life of Global Finance is thus an ambitious and innovative contribution to our understanding of the contemporary financial world.

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9780199573967

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Reviews

This is an undeniably important and timely book. We are at a moment of significant change and uncertainty within the Anglo-American financial system within which many of us are irrevocably entangled due to our everyday roles as borrowers and/or savers. Langley reveals with skill and insight how we have arrived at this particular financial and political conjuncture and, in doing so, provides an important resource to help determine where we may be headed. * Andrew Leyshon, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Nottingham * In a major statement of the new IPE, Paul Langley demonstrates how everyday forms of saving and borrowing produce subject positions and financial identities among everyday actors that are the 'unrecognized' constitutive elements of the global financial order. * Mark Blyth, Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University * This is a major study of how the 'democratization of finance' in our time has worked to create new identities for savers and borrowers. It challenges us all to think again about how we understand the remaking of present day capitalism. * Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy, University of Manchester * Review from previous edition The credit crisis shows the importance of understanding how everyday saving and borrowing interact with global finance. Langley provides a thorough, sophisticated and timely analysis. * Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, and author of An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets *

`Review from previous edition The credit crisis shows the importance of understanding how everyday saving and borrowing interact with global finance. Langley provides a thorough, sophisticated and timely analysis.' Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, and author of An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets `This is a major study of how the 'democratization of finance' in our time has worked to create new identities for savers and borrowers. It challenges us all to think again about how we understand the remaking of present day capitalism.' Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy, University of Manchester `In a major statement of the new IPE, Paul Langley demonstrates how everyday forms of saving and borrowing produce subject positions and financial identities among everyday actors that are the 'unrecognized' constitutive elements of the global financial order.' Mark Blyth, Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University `This is an undeniably important and timely book. We are at a moment of significant change and uncertainty within the Anglo-American financial system within which many of us are irrevocably entangled due to our everyday roles as borrowers and/or savers. Langley reveals with skill and insight how we have arrived at this particular financial and political conjuncture and, in doing so, provides an important resource to help determine where we may be headed.' Andrew Leyshon, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Nottingham

Review from previous edition The credit crisis shows the importance of understanding how everyday saving and borrowing interact with global finance. Langley provides a thorough, sophisticated and timely analysis. Donald MacKenzie, Professor of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, and author of An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets This is a major study of how the 'democratization of finance' in our time has worked to create new identities for savers and borrowers. It challenges us all to think again about how we understand the remaking of present day capitalism. Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy, University of Manchester In a major statement of the new IPE, Paul Langley demonstrates how everyday forms of saving and borrowing produce subject positions and financial identities among everyday actors that are the 'unrecognized' constitutive elements of the global financial order. Mark Blyth, Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University This is an undeniably important and timely book. We are at a moment of significant change and uncertainty within the Anglo-American financial system within which many of us are irrevocably entangled due to our everyday roles as borrowers and/or savers. Langley reveals with skill and insight how we have arrived at this particular financial and political conjuncture and, in doing so, provides an important resource to help determine where we may be headed. Andrew Leyshon, Professor of Economic Geography, University of Nottingham

Author Information

Paul Langley is a political economist at the Division of Politics and History, Northumbria University, UK. While his principal research focus is on finance and the financial markets, Paul has also published on issues such as globalization, civil society, and environmental governance. He is author of World Financial Orders (Routledge, 2002), and his work has appeared in journals such as Competition and Change, Cultural Critique, Environment and Planning D, Global Networks, Review of International Political Economy, and Review of International Studies. Paul is also presently serving as Convenor of the British International Studies Association's (BISA) International Political Economy Group (IPEG).

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