ABSTRACT
If the global crisis from 2007 reflected a disembedding of market economies (as well as demonstrating their incapacity to self-regulate) perhaps we should con- sider how market processes might become re-embedded in our societies and cul- tures (Polanyi, 1944). 2 Negative outcomes of the crisis are now evident in many aspects of economic life. This is nowhere more so than in disruptions associated with the growth in global reach and pervasiveness of financial markets. As Quiggin observes in his contribution to this volume, periods of financial sector dominance have regularly ended in spectacular panics and crashes and the liqui- dation of large numbers of financial institutions. This financial growth has been fuelled by many factors, but not least by “financialization”, defined with disarm- ing simplicity as “the act of making something sellable or tradable that didn’t use to be” (Welsh, 2006).
