Affective life of financial loss: Detaching from lost investments in the wake of the gig economy

Abstract

How people detach from financial relations is a critical but overlooked dimension of economic life. This paper offers a response by exploring how financial loss is reckoned with in the wake of disruptive digital technological change. It examines the experiences of people who have lost significant financial investments owing to the rise of gig economy rideshare platforms to evaluate how a loss of investment is reckoned with as both a financial and existential challenge. Through fieldwork with owners of taxi licences in Melbourne, Australia, the paper contributes to debates on affective investments within geography and beyond to argue that financial and affective investments are inextricably linked. For these investors, their financial loss precipitates the loss of affective investments expressed in terms of a loss of faith in institutions; a loss of face in terms of public respect; and a loss of conviction in terms of an inability to move forward with their lives. The paper argues that reckoning with these losses involves working on one's active and passive affections—capacities to act and sense. The paper concludes that this work of divestment is difficult and acceptance is not guaranteed.