Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum
Moral and pragmatist sociology has studied capitalism as a set of institutions that require justification, which has historically been offered through forms of rewarding and meaningful work, anchoring the human life course in a narrative of individual and collective progress. However, emerging with...
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Cambridge University Press
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Finance and Society |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059599924000104/type/journal_article |
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| author | William Davies |
| author_facet | William Davies |
| author_sort | William Davies |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Moral and pragmatist sociology has studied capitalism as a set of institutions that require justification, which has historically been offered through forms of rewarding and meaningful work, anchoring the human life course in a narrative of individual and collective progress. However, emerging with neoliberalism, then becoming explicit after 2008, contemporary capitalism has become organised around the logic of assets and wealth as opposed to labour and production. This provokes a vacuum of justification. Once all actors are (as Minsky argued) balance sheet actors and profit becomes a function of sheer temporality, the economy ceases to function as a moral order and instead becomes imbued with existential concerns of temporality, durability, survival, and finitude. Possessed only of certain contingently acquired assets and liabilities, the self becomes wholly contingent in the sense described by Heidegger; that is, as ‘thrown’ into having had a past and into a relationship of ‘care’ towards the future. The article identifies symptoms of this existential condition in empirical studies of wealth elites, for whom (in the absence of conventional liberal and production-based measures of worth) problems of meaning, purpose, and finitude are endemic. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-591dbbb949494b8cbf862a6a4ff90bcb |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2059-5999 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Finance and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-591dbbb949494b8cbf862a6a4ff90bcb2025-08-20T02:31:30ZengCambridge University PressFinance and Society2059-59992024-12-011021523310.1017/fas.2024.10Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrumWilliam Davies0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9506-969XDepartment of Politics and International Relations, Goldsmiths University of London, London, UKMoral and pragmatist sociology has studied capitalism as a set of institutions that require justification, which has historically been offered through forms of rewarding and meaningful work, anchoring the human life course in a narrative of individual and collective progress. However, emerging with neoliberalism, then becoming explicit after 2008, contemporary capitalism has become organised around the logic of assets and wealth as opposed to labour and production. This provokes a vacuum of justification. Once all actors are (as Minsky argued) balance sheet actors and profit becomes a function of sheer temporality, the economy ceases to function as a moral order and instead becomes imbued with existential concerns of temporality, durability, survival, and finitude. Possessed only of certain contingently acquired assets and liabilities, the self becomes wholly contingent in the sense described by Heidegger; that is, as ‘thrown’ into having had a past and into a relationship of ‘care’ towards the future. The article identifies symptoms of this existential condition in empirical studies of wealth elites, for whom (in the absence of conventional liberal and production-based measures of worth) problems of meaning, purpose, and finitude are endemic.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059599924000104/type/journal_articleassetsexistentialismjustificationtimewealth |
| spellingShingle | William Davies Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum Finance and Society assets existentialism justification time wealth |
| title | Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum |
| title_full | Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum |
| title_fullStr | Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum |
| title_full_unstemmed | Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum |
| title_short | Owning towards death: The asset condition as existential conundrum |
| title_sort | owning towards death the asset condition as existential conundrum |
| topic | assets existentialism justification time wealth |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059599924000104/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT williamdavies owningtowardsdeaththeassetconditionasexistentialconundrum |