Automating Finance uses several metaphorical resources to stress the connections between markets (often thought of as ephemeral situations) and communities (usually conceptualized through languages of durability and density). These metaphors include the fortuitous identification of the London Stock Exchange with ‘a house’, discussions about relations and infrastructures derived from science and technology studies, and a more significant literature in anthropology that questions the nature and meaning of social relations. Using the language of kinship, I propose thinking about the communities and ethical commitments created with markets as a way of reconceptualizing their political salience in contemporary societies: the issue is not whether markets are net ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ but rather assessing how specific arrangements create relations of dependence, exclusion, exploitation, and mutual responsibility.
Automating Finance 