Financialization and Financial Labor: Ethnographies of Finance and “Ethnographic Reflections” on British Retail Stockbroking

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to offer theoretical and methodological guidance for ethnographers of finance and financialization. It critiques the notion of financialization as a macro process and argues for more in-depth ethnographic studies of professional financial actors.

Design/methodology/approach

The author analyzes existing ethnographies of financial “elites” and “non-elites” and draws on his years of employment at two contrasting British retail stockbroking firms. The concepts of “identity” and “self” are used to analyze the ways in which professional financial actors are shaped by their activities and working cultures.

Findings

The processes through which financial actors are constructed and the consequent ways in which they come to understand their professional selves are influenced by a variety of dynamics: occupational and organizational cultures and practices, the nature of the work itself, technological development, and social interactions with colleagues.

Research limitations/implications

The paper demonstrates the situated nature of financial action and suggests that future research grapples with these dimensions.

Originality/value

The application of an ethnographic perspective to British retail stockbroking and the method of “ethnographic reflection” evoked to achieve this are new contributions. The broad analysis of ethnographies of finance through the lens of identity offers a fresh view of the literature. The paper may be of interest to those wishing to study stockbrokers, financial actors, and financial organizations, as well as those in the social sciences, more generally, who are interested in the micro-dynamics of organizations, financialization, and capital circulation.

Citation

Parkinson, A. (2014), "Financialization and Financial Labor: Ethnographies of Finance and “Ethnographic Reflections” on British Retail Stockbroking", Production, Consumption, Business and the Economy: Structural Ideals and Moral Realities (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 34), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-185. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-128120140000034005