Reluctant financialisaton: Financialisaton without financialised subjectivities in Hungary and the United States

Abstract

The Foucauldian literature on the ‘financialisation of everyday life’ has documented the way neoliberal discourses and practices call forth willing entrepreneurial-investorial and debtor financialised subjects. However, recent qualitative studies on the lived experiences of financialisation suggested that financialised households are often unwilling to adopt the subjectivities of neoliberal discourse (which we call ‘reluctant financialisation’) and only selectively draw on their elements (referred to as ‘variegated subjectivities’). This paper uses quantitative data to examine whether willing or reluctant financialisation is more widespread and if there are geographical, cross-country differences; and to assess the ‘variegated subjectivities’ argument. We conduct two studies: in the first, we compare the extent to which financialised households embrace key aspects of the financialised subjectivities called forth by neoliberal discourse in the mature financialised economy of the United States vs newly financialising Hungary. In the second, we examine the ‘variegated subjectivities’ hypothesis in Hungary. Our results show, first, that the majority of financialised households do not hold the financialised subject position fostered by neoliberal discourse. Second, they lend support to the ‘variegated subjectivities’ hypothesis. This means that reluctance, rather than whole-hearted embracement of neoliberal subjectivities is the main experience of financialisation. Household financialisation is neither driven nor legitimised by households ‘buying into’ neoliberal discourses. Although this may indicate a larger resistance potential in everyday life than previously assumed, we suggest a more negative interpretation: that of ‘domesticated neoliberalism’, which does not require neoliberal subjects but co-opts households’ existing moral economies.