“Upselling,” a Peculiar Financial Practice : An Anthropological Contribution to the Deconstruction of a Case Study

Abstract

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Antropologia dos Direitos Humanos e Movimentos Sociais.The current financial crisis which erupted in the fall of 2008 makes the practices of finance an important field to research. Anthropological interest in finance has been growing as the “subfield” of Anthropology of Finance demonstrates. In this project it is given a first contribution to the deconstruction of a peculiar financial practice called “upselling.” “Upselling” is a particular and unique method conceived and practiced by an English multinational foreign exchange corporation, which I encountered while residing in Denmark. It is an everyday mandatory practice and its goal is to maximize profit in every transaction done with every single one of its customers, which, furthermore, is not to be spoken of to no one, ever. Having “upselling” as a case study, the analysis and deconstruction of this everyday financial practice is extremely important and revealing for understanding the contemporary neoliberal ideological era. The research in this anthropological project has led to the exploratory hypothesis of considering it a deceitful financial practice