Understanding investment culture: ideologies of financialization and Hong Kong young people’s lay theories of investment

Abstract

ABSTRACT Echoing calls for research on the complex ways various factors intersect with the formation of financial subjectivities in specific places (Lai, K. P. Y. 2013. “The Lehman Minibonds Crisis and Financialisation of Investor Subjects in Singapore: The Lehman Minibonds Crisis.” Area 45 (3): 273–282), this study examines how young people in the highly financialized Hong Kong society negotiate with the ideologies of financialization and develop lay theories of investment. Analyses of focus group discussions show that young people consider financial investment as important. They hold an image of the ideal investor but tend to distance themselves from it. The result is a preference for “low risk” investment. When further articulated with other cultural beliefs, many of them see domestic properties as the most preferable investment option despite the skyrocketing prices. Beyond Hong Kong, the analysis shows how local responses to financialization and, more generally, aspects of a society’s investment culture can be understood as the result of people selectively articulating the ideologies of financialization with basic economic concepts and existing cultural beliefs.