Paper short abstract:

The paper will frame central research themes & methodology of Studying Up, constructing an audiovisual ethnography of finance which offers the cultural description of 'normalising deviance', necessary for the functioning of this sphere & critical to understand in establishing a post-capital future.

Paper long abstract:

In the continuing evolutionary aftermath of the global economic collapse of 2007/2008 and absence of sustained audio-visual ethnographic engagement with the central locus of this catastrophic event, THE MARKET (2010-), critically addresses the functioning and condition of the global markets and role of financial capital. Continuing a cycle of long-term research projects, beginning in late 1990s, on migrations of predatory global capital, this paper will outline the theoretical and ethnographically-informed methodological framework of this multi-sited, transnational project and resulting installation. Having undertaken an extensive process of negotiation, averaging 1.5-2 years, to access strategic sites and/or individuals, this visual and media anthropological research project incorporates photographs, film, soundscape, artifactual material, 3D data visualisation and verbal testimony. Taking the sphere out of abstraction and positioning it as a pervasive force central to our lives, themes include the algorithmic machinery of financial markets, as central innovator of this technology, the absorption of crises as normalisation of deviance, and long-range mapping and consequences of financial activity distanced from citizens and everyday life. Profiles include London, Dublin, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Addis Ababa. While the paper will frame the central research themes and methodology of Studying Up, in its summation, THE MARKET constructs an ethnography of power and finance, offering the cultural description of 'normalising deviance', necessary for the functioning of this sphere and critical to understanding in the establishment of a beyond-/post-capital future.