“In this remarkable book, Appadurai masterfully draws a set of classic scholarly voices into a debate over the spirit of capitalism today. Revitalizing the canonical insights of such thinkers as Weber, Mauss, and Austin, he builds toward a bold diagnosis of contemporary finance that not only pinpoints its toxic force and ethical failures but, refreshingly, attempts to discern how its workings might be adjusted to less predatory effect. Appadurai’s highly original analysis is sure to galvanize the current conversation around capitalism and its discontents.”
— Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design
“When Appadurai writes about derivatives, it becomes an exploration of the vast shadow effect of this now-familiar instrument. It also becomes an occasion to enrich our understanding of the derivative’s dangers and value with the ruminations of those whose wisdom predates its existence. The result is a new insight, a wonderful mix of discovery and literature.”
— Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions
“It is a disquieting, if gripping pleasure to read Appadurai’s Banking on Words, which engages the current era of global finance through the metaphor of endlessly stacked, promise-like contracts monetized as hedges against contractual failure—without limit. Focused by fundamental insights of classic social and economic analysis and newer contemporary trends, his lens allows us to discern the essentially ritual-like, ‘performative’ character of derivative transactions, deploying the cultural logics of spells and amulets in the face of the uncertainties of an inevitably uncertain—not just risk-filled—universe. In the light of his trenchant critique of the ‘predatory dividualism’ of the few over the many that has qualitatively transformed capitalist enterprise, the author holds open to us the possibility of harnessing the age of derivative finance for democratic ends.”
— Michael Silverstein, coauthor of Creatures of Politics
"Appadurai has a knack for synthesizing and sparking conversations."
— American Anthropologist
In Banking on Words, Arjun Appadurai sets out his understanding of how anthropology can help analyze the ever-growing importance of the global financial market as an economic system and cultural field… it is a collection of theoretical elaborations that aim to give a genuinely anthropological interpretation of derivatives and the financial crisis that started in 2007… With this book, Appadurai confirms his status as one of the truly original thinkers of our time. His aim to bring the notion of spirit back to anthropological work on the financial markets is spot-on and truly needed.
— Stefan Leins, Anthropos
"Arjun Appadurai’s Banking on Words (2015) analyzes the ‘new life’ of language in an age of financialization. In examining the ‘predatory logics of the derivative,’ Appadurai provides an ambitious, theoretically-driven account of the financial collapse and the new society born in its wake. . . . Arjun Appadurai’s Banking on Words is a theoretical tour de force that attempts to develop a new social scientific understanding of financialization."
— Political and Legal Anthropology Review