ABSTRACT
The most commonly evoked link between our daily lives and finance figuring in the media and political discourses, is related to employment and the organisation of work. Sociology and economics speak of the 'financialisation of the economy' to outline these processes. In 1900, the German sociologist George Simmel, in his 700-page text called The Philosophy of Money, described what was for him one of the major advances of the nineteenth century: monetisation. Sociological research concerning the bonds between finance and daily life are nevertheless not limited to relationships with banks. The transformations of welfare states since 1980s have led to what Jacob Hacker has called the 'risk shift', in other words transferring the division of social risks from the collective body onto individuals and their personal finances. It has become necessary for members of the middle classes to multiply the choice of contracts, the level of risk or the level of savings by anticipating their needs and the unforeseeable circumstances.
