Crisis with US sub-prime mortgages, paralysis in global credit markets and the run on Northern Rock all wake-up calls to the growing influence of finance and financial markets on the lives of ordinary people. Social scientists began debating financialization in the late 2000s much as they debated globalizsation in the 1990s, and this important book prepares the way by allowing readers to (re)define financialization for themselves.

The articles are grouped by discourse, covering not only inter-war liberal collectivism and current cultural economy, but also the agency theory of mainstream finance and political economy of various kinds. Helpful commentaries introduce each individual reading while section introductions analyze the assumptions, core propositions, achievements and limits in each distinct literature.

This book will challenge readers to bring a new understanding to the financialization of present day capitalism. It is an invaluable resource for students and researchers from business and management, plus all the social sciences with interests in political and cultural economy.

'The story of the past three decades is of how finance has shaped the world
in its own image, greatly enriched itself in the process and has now taken
the global economy to the brink of chaos. This book explains how this
process happened and, just as importantly, opens a broad historical perspective on what should happen now.' Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The Guardian

'How do we make sense of the waves of financial innovation and crisis that sweep before us at an ever increasing pace? This set of readings is crucial for an understanding of these events and processes. Meticulously edited, each section is accompanied by thoughtful and measured commentary, and the introductory essay will surely become a key text in itself.' Professor Grahame Thompson, Open University

The team of editors work together on financialization and financial innovation. Their most recent book, Financialization and Strategy (Froud et al), was published by Routledge in 2006 and current projects include work on elites for a Sociological Review monograph. They are all researchers at the ESRC Centre for Research in Socio Cultural Change (www.cresc.ac.uk) where Karel Williams is co-director. Ismail Erturk, Julie Froud, Adam Leaver, and Karel Williams teach at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester and Sukhdev Johal at the School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London. They have also set up the International Working Group on Financialisation (www.iwgf.org).