The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events

Thursday, 04 July 2024, 11:00
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften of Goethe University
FKH colloquium

Hannah McHugh
»Financial Markets: the Dynamics of Domination«

Abstract
The 2008 financial crisis changed the world. Amidst chaos and turbulence, debt providers and products collapsed and, as a result, millions of people suffered the loss of their jobs, their savings, even their homes, and declining educational and health outcomes resulted. More than a decade of lasting economic damage began to unfold. Immediately, the greed and incompetence of »fat cat bankers« was decried. There was a popular perception that millions had been subjected to the will of a reckless elite. In the wake of 2008, there has been a persisting sense of injustice felt among electorates which has fed into unexpected electoral outcomes and crises of legitimacy globally. The cascading effects of 2008 disproportionately affected the worst off in society, and reduced opportunities for secure and healthy living for millions.

Yet, with very few financial market players facing criminal sanction, that reckless elite escaped significant personal accountability. Why, though, were citizens able to accept the financial turmoil which took away their homes and livelihoods without holding individuals accountable? This talk will suggest that one reason for this was that a structural account of the nature of financial markets permeated common consciousness. Simply put, some see financial markets as a structural force that is not compelled by any agent’s voluntary will, which implies that no one was personally responsible for its crash. Who should one side with? With those who see the failure of the 2008 financial markets as the fault of a reckless elite who subjected others to their risk-taking behaviour? Or with those who see the failing as resulting from a systemic risk for which no identifiable agents are responsible? This dispute is mirrored in the debate between agential and structural republican political theorists as to how best to conceptualise modern economic domination. This article argues that resolving this latter debate offers a way of addressing the former dispute and identifying who or what is responsible for financial market injustices. It also provides some implications for how financial markets can be made compatible with the demands of freedom in the future.

The speaker
Hannah McHugh is a post-doctoral researcher with a PhD in Political Theory from University College in London (UCL). From October 2023 until July 2024 she is at the invitation of Rainer Forst, Professor of Political theory at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and the Justitia Centre for Advanced Studies funded by the Alfons and Gertrud Kassel Foundation, a Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften.

Participation
Closed event. Contact: Beate Sutterlüty; email: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de).