A collective speculative imagination shapes how capitalist societies cope with future uncertainty.
Evidence
In common language, speculation is associated with the fancies of global stock markets and the whims of Wall Street’s bulls and bears. But what exactly is the role of speculation in modern capitalist life? Why, after decades of rampant financialization throughout the world, do markets and publics remain today so closely aligned? And how do we account for the paradox of a political economy where debilitating uncertainty about the future brings growing yields for financiers and politicians alike? This first part of the book disentangles these paradoxes by proposing a theory of speculative communities. I argue that, ever since the transition from industrial to finance capitalism, a sweeping speculative imagination has been integrated into everyday life: a profoundly generative social force, whose important role has remained neglected to this day, despite its great influence in shaping capitalist societies and their uneven abilities to cope with the future’s radical uncertainties. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 45
Categorization
- DEFINE: States the book’s central concept: ‘speculative imagination’ as a generative social force integrated into everyday life since the shift to finance capitalism.
- ADDENDUM: The core paradox stated here — uncertainty yielding profits for financiers and politicians — directly extends the reader’s interest in financialized populism as speculative betting.
- XREF: connects to: Everyday people respond to market uncertainty by speculating on corporate and state values. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 435; Collective imagination, not individual gamblers, shapes our shared wagers on the future — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 552; Speculation, not conspiracy, is capitalism’s most powerful producer of unreality. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 563 (+6 more)