Introduction

This introduction presents the concept of “critical finance studies.” On the basis of a discussion of established social science approaches to finance—new economic sociology, social studies of finance, and critical theory-inspired work—as well as their critical impetus, I argue for a type of critical finance studies that is characterized by a simultaneous commitment to empirical investigation (ensuring familiarity with the topic under study) and theoretical analysis (ensuring conceptual de-familiarization). The introduction ends with an overview of the Handbook’s chapters.