Gifts, Derivatives and Socialities

This one day conference brings together a range of heterodox voices on questions of the culture and political economy of contemporary finance. Specifically, it convenes two clusters of scholars, The Australian Working Group in Financialization, based in Sydney, and the Cultures of Finance Group based at NYU, with international respondents who are connected to kindred endeavors taking place around the world. The day pursues multiple openings to the ways in which gifting can be understood through a financial lens, money is transformed through extant financial operations, emergent sociality legible are made legible in mutuality, and forms of credit and debt are detectable in the massive new wealth augured by ascendant derivatives. The day is divided amongst three panels that mix participants from the two primary groups–each of which is on the cusp of a major collaborative publication–and critical responses. Our hope is to place in conversation and give air to the entailments of our key arguments that have developed over many years of work and that are now ready to see the light of day in a comprehensive fashion. We hope you will join us for this rethinking of the materialities of the capitalism we live and the immanent politics and analytic language that our reading of derivatives affords.

9:30  Coffee Reception

10:00   Opening Remarks – Arjun Appadurai

10:30 -12:00

Dick Bryan, Martijn Konings, Ben Lee

Respondent: Freya Bundey

12:00-1:30  Lunch

1:30-3:00

Fiona Allon, Arjun Appadurai, Ed Lipuma

Respondent: Joyce Goggin

3:00-4:30

Carey Hardin, Robert Wosnitzer, Bob Meister

Respondent: Janalee Cherneski

4:30-5:00  Closing Remarks

Randy Martin

Reception to Follow Conference Proceedings