Offshore Finance Centres: Institutions of global capital and sites of cultural practice

Abstract

This paper explores the way the concept of ‘culture’ has been harnessed by the \ncorporation as an identifiable object, that is considered either an impediment to \ngrowth and productivity or a valuable resource that can be deployed in the \nmarketplace for increased profitability and enhanced share-holder value. This is \naddressed by considering Offshore Finance Centres (OFCs) as sites of institutional \npractice, whereby the commentaries and narratives of social actors, particularly \ncorporate lawyers, accountants, fund managers and regulators, provide deep and \nnuanced perspectives on the institutions they help make. It concretes on the Samoa \nOFC and the invocation of culture as a means of promoting political stability, a good \nreputation and how these ideas subtlety infuse investment decisions. In doing so it is \nargued that globalisation makes specific use of particular places (through law), \ntransnational spaces (through mobility), and corporate definitions of culture and its \nvalue.

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