Finance has its own productive imaginary, not merely a hollowing-out force.

Evidence

I am, however, less interested in the power of finance to control, to tame, or to co-opt the social imagination and more in the specific type of imagined communities that produce (and are produced by) financialized capitalism. Though we now know a lot about the myriad ways in which finance hollows out contemporary social life, we understand far less about its own way of imagining—not just the future but our puzzlingly uncertain present too. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 86

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the standard critical-theory picture (finance colonizes imagination) in favor of finance as itself generative of its own imagining — echoes the Frankfurt School debate over whether financialization is repressive or productive. — connects to: Finance’s dominance rests on speculative imagination, not just market rationality. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 550; Finance produces its own imagined communities rather than merely colonizing existing ones; Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29 (+12 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Finance’s dominance rests on speculative imagination, not just market rationality. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 550; Finance produces its own imagined communities rather than merely colonizing existing ones; Financial assets are largely imaginary, yet imaginary does not mean unreal — Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, 29 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Finance produces its own imagined communities rather than merely colonizing existing ones #expands (0.92)
• Speculative finance dominates by co-opting the generative worker imagination. #complicates (0.75) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 142