The Resilience of Finance Capitalism: Assessing the role of money in the global political economy

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Kai Koddenbrock
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2017 to 2024
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387869136

Brexit and the election of Trump have shattered some of the routines citizens in Europe and the USA have grown accustomed to. Protectionism and nationalism are real policy options again, regional integration and the creation of trade blocks have lost esteem. What has remained the same, though, is the emphasis placed on the well-being of the financial sector both in the UK and the US. Finance capitalism is alive and well. This resilience of global finance capitalism is at the heart of our proposed network. To understand this resilience we seek to assess the fundamental role of money within the overall infrastructure of global capitalism. Engaging with recent advances in money theory and financial economics we aim to establish the study of money, which is the backbone of the global capitalist political economy, as an essential part of political science. Capitalist money is a public-private partnership between the state, banks and the people. There is constant struggle over what counts as money at all, how much of it there shall be and at what price. The backbone and structural condition of the interaction between capitalist nation states businesses and individuals is thus constantly shaped and re-created by specific actors. In six workshops we will zoom in on the intricacies of theses struggles and their implications by asking these questions: What is money and how is it created? How do key actors and institutions partake in the production of money? How are hierarchies in global and national monetary relations created and maintained? How does money matter for national and global wealth inequality? By bringing together an international group of economists, sociologists and political scientists working on money, credit, banking, and the theory of capitalism more broadly, the network aims to develop a clearer and more fine-grained understanding of what explains the resilience of finance capitalism and what role money plays in this.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Benjamin Braun