Markets and nationalist publics may both yearn for uncertainty rather than stability.

Evidence

Instead, through a close reading of influential theoretical works on populism and empirical studies of grassroots nativism, I trace the role of speculative imagination in the formation of this new alliance. Too often we think of markets as natural proponents of economic and political stability, much as we associate the parochialism of regressive nationalism with a nostalgic craving for the (imagined) security of an earlier era. But what if markets and publics now coalesce around a shared yearning for uncertainty? — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 38

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the book’s core contrarian premise—that both finance and populism share a craving for volatility rather than the security conventionally imputed to each.
• XREF: connects to: Both markets and nationalism are assumed to crave stability, not volatility — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 65