Meissner narrating the global financial crisis; urban imaginaries and the politics of myth (2017)

Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society Series Editors Jeroen de Kloet Centre for Globalization Studies University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, The Netherlands Esther Peeren Centre for Globalization Studies University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, The Netherlands Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society traverses the boundaries between the humanities and the social sciences to critically explore the cultural and social dimensions of contemporary globalization processes This entails looking at the way globalization unfolds through and within cultural and social practices, and identifying and understanding how it effects cultural and social change across the world The series asks what, in its different guises and unequal diffusion, globalization is taken to be and in and across specific locations, and what social, political and cultural forms and imaginations this makes possible or renders obsolete A particular focus is the vital contribution made by different forms of the imagination (social, cultural, popular) to the conception, experience and critique of contemporary globalization Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society is committed to addressing globalization across cultural contexts (western and non-western) through interdisciplinary, theoretically driven scholarship that is empirically grounded in detailed case studies and close analyses Within the scope outlined above, we invite junior and senior scholars to submit proposals for monographs, edited volumes and the Palgrave Pivot format Please contact the series editors for more information: b.j.dekloet@uva.nl / e.peeren@uva.nl More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15109 Miriam Meissner Narrating the Global Financial Crisis Urban Imaginaries and the Politics of Myth Miriam Meissner Department of Sociology Lancaster University Lancaster, United Kingdom Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society ISBN 978-3-319-45410-8 ISBN 978-3-319-45411-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45411-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017933051 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Cover illustration © Sergey Nivens / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this book would have been impossible, and also much less pleasant, without the support of many, whom I wish to thank here The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) at the University of Amsterdam generously provided the financial support for the first four years of this project, which allowed me to focus fully on the research and writing, as well as to travel and “test” my ideas in different environments The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University provided its support for the finalization of this project and helped me to include some of the visual material that I discuss in this book as illustrations Many scholars have helped me to develop, challenge and re-develop my ideas for this book I would like to thank some of them, in particular, for sharing their interests and insights, as well as for helping me to bring my writing into a publishable form More gratitude than I could express here goes to Christoph Lindner, who encouraged this project from its very beginning five years ago, and whose heartening enthusiasm, attentive feedback, and thoughtful practical advice were crucial to every step of its further development I wish to thank Marieke de Goede, Jeroen de Kloet, Nicky Marsh, Esther Peeren, Patricia Pisters, and Gillian Rose for their careful reading and invaluable comments on my writing Esther Peeren and Jeroen de Kloet I want to thank twice Their help and confidence allowed me to have this book be part of the Palgrave Studies in Globalization, Culture and Society series, which is a great opportunity I thank Joyce Goggin for passing on to me her fascination with the critical study of finance and financial fiction, and for including me in every event related to these topics v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank Patricia Pisters and Greg de Cuir for encouraging me to publish my first research findings in NECSUS: European Journal of Media Studies I also thank NECSUS for allowing me to reprint some of that material in this book I am grateful to Julia Ott and Joseph Heathcott for inviting and welcoming me at the New School for Social Research, which – apart from an interesting guest research experience – also provided a great opportunity to get to know New York In terms of moral and intellectual support, I wish to thank all of the members of ASCA for being such an energizing, inspiring and warmhearted group! ASCA’s Ph.D community provided great support for, and distraction from, this project I am grateful for all the helpful, exciting and funny conversations at the office, during breaks and beyond From the Ph.D community, I particularly wish to thank Judith Naeff and Pedram Dibazar, whom I consider a dream team, as well as Simon Ferdinand, Marie Beauchamps, Tim Yaczo, Tijmen Klous, Selỗuk Balamir, Lara Mazurski, Enis Dinỗ, Uzma Abid Ansari, Blandine Joret, Nur Ozgenalp, Niall Martin, Melle Kromhout and Irene Villaescusa Illán My friends have been, and continue to be great in supporting me, but also in making sure that I not get “lost in my head” I cannot acknowledge all of the different ways in which they manage to so, but I wish to thank some of them, in particular, for being there for me throughout the past few years Anna-Helena Klumpen, Dea van Lierop, and Diana Soto de Jesús, I thank for being close during our first few years in Amsterdam, and for continuing to care and stay in touch in spite of our present distance Marine Delgado, Clara Dutilleul, Marina Henao, Marika Tsombikos, Lorna Kirkpatrick and Jella Lorenz – my Radioweg family – I thank for a fantastic time living together, for their care, their wit, and for making Amsterdam home I thank Neli Dobreva for her longtime support and belief in me, and for providing a home in Paris; Dana Rubin Macioti for being an inspirational thinker and fighter; Hania Raciborska for organizing energizing travels around Europe; Elwira Lewandowska and Ritesh Kumar for “adopting me” as an almost stranger at their place in New York – and for being the best (and also the most funny) impression I took home from this city I am also grateful to Julia Baldus, Francis Bendel, Lena Heuel, Carmela La Marca, Alicja Malinowski, Jenny Neumann, Claudia Pinnhammer, Anita Prochnicki, Ilka Schlegel and Marie-Christine Ulmen, for staying in touch and making me feel as if I never left whenever I come back to Bonn Finally, I wish to express much gratitude to my family – to my grandparents Maria and Werner Krapohl, and Gertrud and Günther Meissner, as ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii well as to Walter, Heike, Patrick, Tobias Meissner and Margarete Siegberg – for believing in me even if it was not always clear what I was doing (maybe it still isn’t) Most of all, I wish to thank my parents, Jeannine and Bernd Meissner, for their trust and love, and for finding ways to be, move and celebrate with me at every moment and despite any geographical distance Last but not least, I thank Federico Savini, for sharing with me all the important (and also some of the less important) thoughts, ideas and feelings of the last years, and for being able to turn even the more difficult moments into laughter CONTENTS Introduction: Myths of Finance and the City Mythical Crisis Perspectives 17 Setting the Scene: Financial Spaces and Architectures 41 Figuring Flows: Urban Transport Myths of Trading 83 Dwelling in Times of Financialization: Dreams, Ruins, Escapism 133 Specters of Finance and the Black Box City 173 Conclusion: Financialization, Spectral Absence and the Politics of Myth 221 Bibliography 229 Index 243 ix LIST Fig 3.1 Fig 3.2 Fig 3.3 Fig 3.4 Fig 3.5 Fig 3.6 Fig 3.7 Fig 3.8 Fig 3.9 Fig 3.10 Fig 4.1 Fig 4.2 Fig 4.3 Fig 5.1 OF FIGURES Geometrical aesthetics in the opening credits of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) High angle shot of the grid city in Inside Job (2010) The financial gaze in Freefall (2009) Estranged perspectives: trading screen reflections in the windowpane of a London-based investment bank in Freefall (2009) Skyline index in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Fictitious capital block skyscraper in The Big Short (2015) Skyscraper-bomb imaginary Front cover of DER SPIEGEL (29/2009) Building the bubble in Inside Job (2010) Transparency versus preclusion Meeting at Lehman Brothers shortly before its bankruptcy, photo by Kevin Coombs (2008, Reuters) Spectral heralds of the crisis in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Subway specters: flashback to Louis Zabel’s suicide in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Photograph of Winnie as the underlying asset of Gekko and Jacob’s “subway deals” in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Sacrificial suicide in Cosmopolis (2012) Housing imaginary of wealth distribution in the U.S.A, published in Vanity Fair (2011) Illustration by Stephen Doyle Courtesy of Doyle Partners 53 55 56 59 61 63 67 68 74 78 92 129 130 135 xi ... determine their respective politics of myth It is the aim of the following chapters to explore these structures and politics in the urban imaginaries of popular GFC portrayals CHAPTER Mythical... Lancaster 2012), and the film Margin Call (J.C Chandor 2011), the chapter develops a more general theory on the politics of myth At the center of this theory is the argument that, although all myths form... http://www.springer.com/series/15109 Miriam Meissner Narrating the Global Financial Crisis Urban Imaginaries and the Politics of Myth Miriam Meissner Department of Sociology Lancaster University Lancaster,