Forum for Anthropology and Culture, 2018, no. 14

A Review of ARJUN APPADURAI, BANKING ON WORDS: THE FAILURE OF LANGUAGE IN THE AGE OF DERIVATIVE FINANCE. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2016, 180 pp.

Yulia Vymyatnina
European University at St Petersburg
6/1A Gagarinskaya Str., St Petersburg, Russia
yv()eu.spb.ru

Abstract: The book under review is an attempt to understand the latest financial crisis of 2008–9 by analysing the derivatives market through the lens of economic anthropology. The book is more of an open invitation to consider the nature of modern financial market using the example of derivatives. It poses questions, such as the essence of market price, the border between risk and uncertainty, the fair share of financial sector in the economy, but it does not provide the answers. Considered from an economist’s point of view, Appadurai’s book lacks a clear understanding of the economic gist of the phenomena under study. This, alongside with incorrect and mixed up usage of economic terms and absent understanding of the latest developments of economics science, makes the book a difficult reading for professionals beyond economic anthropology and related fields. However, the questions posed in the book and the opinion from outside of the economic science will provide food for thought for those economists who get through the mentioned difficulties.

Keywords: derivatives, financial market, risk, uncertainty, economic anthropology.

To cite: Vymyatnina Yu., ‘A Review of Arjun Appadurai, Banking on Words: The Failure of Language in the Age of Derivative Finance. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2016, 180 pp.’, Forum for Anthropology and Culture, 2018, no. 14, pp. 240–252.

doi: 10.31250/1815-8927-2018-14-14-240-252

URL: http://anthropologie.kunstkamera.ru/files/pdf/eng014/vymyatnina.pdf