An Anthropologist Goes Offshore, or, Creating an Actor-Network Among Finance Elites

Abstract

This article discusses the methodological implications of a recent study on Luxembourg's offshore financial center. Insight from actor-network theory was essential in undertaking its ethnographic research with elites from the country's state and financial institutions. My intention in documenting this approach is to provide a template for ethnographers studying other localized contexts of global politico-economic significance, in which elite actors usually seek to curtail the enquiries of investigators. With this actor-network from Luxembourg as an example, I demonstrate how elite and difficult-to-access milieus can be entered via “networking” coupled with outreach via interviews and email correspondence. As I show, by initiating various modalities of entry into the context in question, ethnographers can establish themselves within an actor-network for the purposes of conducting interviews and participant observation with elite interlocutors.

Citation

Weeks, S. (2024), "An Anthropologist Goes Offshore, or, Creating an Actor-Network Among Finance Elites", Wood, D.C. and Swamy, R. (Ed.) Health, Money, Commerce, and Wealth (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 43), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 63-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-128120240000043005