Rogue Traders, Suspect Citizens and the Invisible Hand: Crisis in the Theater of Responsibility

Abstract

Since 2008 the language of economic crisis has dominated American political discourse. In this article it is argued that within the context of the current economic crisis, there has been a shift from market-talk that displaces human agency to an active naming and production of blameworthy subjects. This, it is suggested, serves a political and ideological function by focusing attention on individuals and groups and away from a confrontation with the normative and systemic violence of capitalism itself. By attending to the multiple corollary discourses of responsibility through which the economic crisis is framed this article interrogates the ways in which responsibility renders political moments intelligible through ascriptions of blame and accountability that both structure how economic crisis is perceived and delimit possible responses to economic events. It is suggested that in order to respond effectively to normative problems, systemic violence, and structural injustice we must first deconstruct the economic discourse that shuttles between a market-centered model of responsibility and an agent-centered blame model of responsibility, both of which serve to sustain the sanctity of the market.