Everyday Financialization: The Case of UK Households

Since the 1970s the UK government has been promoting private asset ownership while decreasing publicly funded welfare programmes. This asset-based welfare approach calls on households to accumulate assets in order to provide financial security during periods of income shortfall. Drawing on a Foucauldian governmentality framework, the dissertation explores how norms of asset ownership are constructed and embedded in households’ discourses and practices. For this purpose, 56 semi-structured interviews with 55 UK households and 60 household members were conducted between 2016 and 2017. The insights gained from the interviews have been supported with an analysis of newspaper articles and put into relation to the wider UK development with the help of household surveys conducted by the government. The findings presented in the thesis reflect empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions. First, looking to debates within the financialization of daily life literature, the empirical findings indicate that households adopt a financialized subject position, albeit differently interpreted than anticipated by the literature. Households accumulate financial and non-financial assets and avoid debt except for asset accumulation purposes. Second, the empirical insights provide the basis for the theoretical contribution. By shedding light on the interplay between asset norms and everyday practices discussions on governmentality and capitalist relations are extended. To be able to save and invest, interviewed households increase work hours, choose a job solely based on income and make sure to work hard while living a nonmaterialistic lifestyle. Through this it is argued here that power relationships incorporated in capital-labour inequalities are strengthened. Third, a methodological contribution is outlined by showing how the employed holistic approach has helped to reveal household financial identities. By providing qualitative empirical insights instead of relying solely on secondary data, it is shown that asset norms are not absorbed in a non-reflected way but are negotiated

A Critical Assessment of Economic Crises Resulting in the Design of a Macroeconomic Framework

According to Minsky, capitalism has an inherent tendency to financial instability: periods of boom are followed by financial crash. Thus, economic policies have to be proactive. For any economy, it is necessary at each point in time to assess the degree of potential instability, and the particular role played by monetary and fiscal policy. The purpose of this dissertation is to draw on Minsky’s theory and examine economic policy’s role in the formulation of a real estate bubble. With the help of a historical case study, this research examines how exogenous factors such as economic policies and endogenous factors such as positive expectations contribute to financial fragility. The case study chosen is that of Spain prior to 2007, where rising financial instability culminated in the eventual bursting of a pronounced housing bubble. A quantitative descriptive analysis supported by a qualitative document review are chosen to provide an in-depth picture. It is shown that exogenous policy factors contributed to the crisis trigger and helped to exacerbate the boom. After introduction of the Euro single currency, profit opportunities arose, based on interest rate and growth differentials, leading to capital inflows from the European centre and rising fragility. Procyclical fiscal and monetary policy amplified positive expectations and further fuelled the housing bubble