American Anthropological Association

 
In the latest issue of American Anthropologist, Karen Ho considers the quotidian practices of Wall Street, and their effect on the downsizing of “corporate America” and the 2001 financial bubble and bust.

Ho examines the ethos of investment banks as any ethnographer would, by considering the “mundane cultural practices of the everyday”, thereby avoiding the “mystique” of money and markets as socially disembedded abstract forms.

From there, Ho considers how Wall Street culture has “resocialized” corporate America to become more aligned with its own values, encouraging downsizing and compressed timeframes to measure performance.

Ultimately, Ho argues that the expanded influence of Wall Street has helped to “shape a world of socioeconomic inequality, insecurity, and crisis.” Though Ho conducted her fieldwork over ten years ago at several major investment banks, her findings are quite prescient in the context of today’s recession.

The article, ”Disciplining Investment Bankers, Disciplining the Economy: Wall Street’s Institutional Culture of Crisis and the Downsizing of “Corporate America” “, is available now on Anthrosource.