Culture now shapes the financial economy as much as the economy shapes culture
Evidence
But, further (and this is crucial), financialization also means a moment when the financial system, and the capitalist economy of which it is a part, is dependent on and invested in the ideologies, practices and fictions of daily life as never before. In a moment characterized by ubiquitous debt, escalating consumerism and political quietism (or, worse, reactionism), and by a highly volatile financialized economy, the realms of culture and ideology can no longer be said to be merely the superstructure of a “real” economic base. — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 61
Categorization
- XREF: The core reversal-of-base-superstructure claim that deWaard’s cultural financialization argument builds on; connects to Jameson’s ‘becoming cultural of the economic.’ — connects to: Cultural forms are a reduced, simplified model for reading the economic real; Financial language now reshapes public policy domains historically governed by other values. — Ève Chiapello, Financialisation of Valuation, 93; Financialized cultural attitudes may result from, not drive, expanded financial services. — Neil Fligstein & Adam Goldstein, The Emergence of a Finance Culture in…, 49 (+10 more)
- DEEPTHINKING: The claim that ideology now is itself the economic infrastructure, not its superstructure, inverts a foundational Marxist assumption and deserves sustained reflection.
Broader Connections
- Financialization colonizes culture through diffuse metaphors, narratives, and techniques
#expands(0.85) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 35 - In late capitalism the economic base generates its cultural superstructures directly
#contradicts(0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 32 - Culture is not superstructural but is where financialized capitalism subjugates social values
#expands(0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 563 - Financialization colonizes culture by fusing economic price with social value
#expands(0.80) — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 561