ABSTRACT

While many discussions of the economic crisis of 2007-2008 have sought to explain the causes of the financial collapse, this volume looks to supplement these accounts by exploring possible alternatives for the post-crisis world in which we now live. However, rather than offering a strictly economic approach, Cultural Studies and Finance Capitalism argues that the crisis was as much cultural as economic, and that any way forward must understand the complex relationship between media, culture and the economy. The chapters in this volume deal with a wide range of themes including celebrity culture, media coverage of the economy, examinations of economic theory and financial markets. They bring together research that combines an historical perspective with a view towards the future of critical cultural and political analysis. In a period marked by anxiety and economic austerity, this volume offers the reader tools for understanding the place and importance of cultural research in the post-crisis era.

This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Cultural Studies.

chapter |12 pages

The Economic Crisis and After

Recovery, reconstruction and cultural studies

chapter |38 pages

Modernity and Commensuration

A reading of a contemporary (economic) crisis

chapter |19 pages

Spirits in the Night

Reasonableness and the etho-politics of securities law

chapter |20 pages

After Neo-Liberalism?

Markets, states and the reinvention of public welfare

chapter |23 pages

Celebrity and Schadenfreude

The cultural economy of fame in freefall

chapter |13 pages

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Economies of parable

chapter |14 pages

Creative Industries Debate

Unfinished business: labour, management, and the creative industries