Three decades of profound advances in financial economics have transformed global markets, but have had relatively little impact on the social sciences and humanities. As a result, scholars face a dearth of intellectual resources that interpret, critique, defend, transform and explain the political phenomenon of derivatives. The Crisis of 2008 set many of these issues in stark relief, but marked neither the end nor the beginning of the end. The Initiative focuses on the intellectual and policy issues that will haunt us long after the initial reactions to the crisis fade.
Particular attention is paid to the evolution and regulation of derivatives. The model for valuing derivatives has become a new way of understanding capitalism as a production of new property (a commodity) by means of contract alone. Scholars in the social sciences and humanities are seeking to understand the difference that this new shape of capital has made to their fields. Within the minutiae of esoteric financial instruments lie social, political, and religious assumptions that remain largely unexamined to this day. The role of derivatives in the economy is currently being publicly questioned, criticized, and legislated. Economists are seeking to understand better the cultural, institutional, and moral dimensions of their work.
Rethinking Capitalism aims to connect those who are technically adept at the new financial technologies with scholars of culture, institutions, ethics and theology. We support original research in political economy and the social study of finance.