Making a drama out of a crisis

Representing financial failure, or a tragedy in five acts

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8963544
AutoresL Mcdowell (0000-0001-7888-0886, University of Oxford, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume36
Fascículo2
Páginas193-205
Data de publicação2011-03-28
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1475-5661.2011.00434.x
OpenAlexW2151642857
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas13
Referências citadas20

In popular representations, including journalism, film and drama, a tendency to attribute blame for the recent financial crisis to the greed and venality of individual bankers has been noticeable. In this paper, I explore some of these representations, focusing on the ways in which blame is attributed to the irrational behaviour of actors operating in a heteronormative culture in which masculinity and risk‐taking were, until the crash, highly rewarded. This is a marked shift from earlier claims that the growing reliance on apparently rational mathematical methods of calculating risk would abolish the cycles of boom and bust that characterise financial markets. I argue that the analysis of story‐telling, financial journalism and dramatic representations complements other ways of explaining financial crises, including structural analyses. In an attempt to mirror these representations, I present my arguments as a drama in five acts, before concluding with an assessment of the significance of different narrative representations

Art · Blame · Boom · Bust · Drama · Economics · Financial crisis · Irrational number · Journalism · Keynesian economics · Literature · Media studies · Narrative · Social science · Sociology · Tragedy (event · Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis · Financial Markets and Investment Strategies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Psychology · Social Psychology