Critique of financialization must center the imagination because mainstream capitalist theory neglects it.
Evidence
Correspondingly, formulating critique in the face of financialization requires more conceptual sensitivity to the power of the imagination. Contemporary theorizing of capitalism, focused as it is on the conflict between hegemonic and “counter” rationalities, has to a large extent overlooked discussing the conditions for imagination. A shift of interest is needed if we are to avoid the risk of losing control of the speculative imagination. Exposing the inherent uncertainties, complexities, and opacities of the present conjuncture is a crucial step toward forming such a critique. Orienting our speculative imaginations toward a more progressive and equitable politics can happen only through recognizing the irreducible contingency of the present moment in ways that embrace its darkness, but without reproducing the exclusionary violence of speculative finance. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 73
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The proposition that progressive politics requires embracing contingency and darkness without reproducing speculative finance’s violent exclusions is a genuinely difficult, layered argument worth sitting with — not a simple empirical claim.
- SEED: Angle for an essay: why left critique of finance keeps misfiring — because it attacks rationalities while the enemy is imagination itself.
- XREF: connects to: Economic theory has neglected homo speculans while fixating on homo economicus. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 136
Broader Connections
- Economic theory has neglected homo speculans while fixating on homo economicus.
#corroborates(0.80) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 136