Negotiating with the Future: The Culture of Modern Risk in Global Financial Markets

Abstract

In contemporary global financial markets, the production and investment of capital is dependent upon complex systems of risk management. In this paper I explore the ‘modern’ notion of risk within these markets. I argue that these systems are not only dependent upon institutional infrastructure and material resources but are also maintained by a specific ‘risk’ culture, an entrenched set of practices of market configuration, technological development, social-group construction, and notions of authority, expertise and creativity which combines modernity's ambition to know with the market's ambition to commodify. This form of ‘modern’ risk can be seen as deeply entrenched within and produced by broader social and economic developments, and runs counter to the critical version of risk developed by Beck. I show how risk itself is a contested concept, and how it defines different practices of dealing with the future.

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