Cultures of Finance

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	IDSEM-UG1725
Section	001
Instructor	Robert Wosnitzer
Days	Mon,Wed
Time	9:30 AM - 10:45 AM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement	SOC

Description

Why has the financial sector emerged as such a leading part of our contemporary economy? To what extent does the financial sector today model action across the political, cultural and social spheres of life? Often, we see finance as a realm determined by ‘objective’ -- and opaque -- financial models and devices whose consequences seem out of reach to society. This course seeks to remedy that concept, focusing on the study of culture from within financial institutions and markets, and its development as playing an important role in everyday social life. In this course, we will define key features of the contemporary system of finance as part of the historical development of capitalism. We will consider the ways in the culture of finance has inflected, informed, and determined the wider culture that is increasingly described in financial terms and forms. We will visit the spatial arrangements of trading desks and central exchanges, their technological devices and models, financial instruments, and the people who occupy these spaces as our central object of inquiry, while considering the ways in which financial instruments are made to circulate through this system and the ways in which they are culturally negotiated. Readings may include Max Weber, Arjun Appadurai, Randy Martin, David Harvey, Tim Mitchell, Don MacKenzie, Karen Ho, and Caitlin Zaloom.

Course Type

Interdisciplinary Seminars (IDSEM-UG)