14th Berlin Roundtables on Transnationality, 25 – 29 June 2011
“Financialization and Everyday Life”

The recent financial crisis has shaken confidence in the financial and especially the credit and loan system. It now increasingly stands for the ongoing dispossession of the middle classes and even more of already vulnerable populations. From a broader perspective, however, this is only one aspect of the ongoing financialization of everyday life. In fact, many have argued that financialization has given the average citizen unprecedented power over corporations through political consumerism and shareholder activism. And corporations respond to these new demands through large CSR programs and codes of conduct.

The conference will be divided into two workshops:

Workshop I ‘Deconstructing Credit and Money in Neoliberalism: Power, Culture, and History’ chaired by Jane Guyer (Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University) and Susanne Soederberg (Global Development & Political Studies, Queen’s University, Canada) and

Workshop II ‘Financialization and Corporate Social Responsibility: Consumers and Investors as the New Policymakers?’ chaired by Boris Holzer (Sociology, University of Bielefeld) and Bryane Michael (Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)