Ó Riain, Seán
(2012)
The Crisis of Financialisation in Ireland.
The Economic and Social Review, 43 (4).
pp. 497-533.
ISSN 0012-9984
Abstract
This paper explores the intersection of national and transnational processes in shaping
Ireland's financial crisis. It uses insights from economic sociology to reconcile the anal}d;ical
tension hetween an understanding of Ireland's crisis in terms of the unfolding of an international
process and explanations that focus on specific national features. A series of significant policy
decisions in the late 1990s favoured financial markets in allocating capital and opened up
significant institutional space for speculative lending. Underneath the apparently consistent
expansion of the property lending buhble since the mid-1990s, there was a significant shift in
investment logics from the early 2000s as both residential and commercial real estate spending
became detached from underlying demand. This shift in logic was based on two significant
"translations" of investment rationalities into justifications of lending and investment that
underpinned the bubble. Irish banks' own conceptions of risk and rational investments shifted
subtly over time so that property lending was translated into a rational investment, encouraged
by market dynamics such as increased bank profits, rising share prices and concentration of
decision making power in the banking system. At the same time, and in the context of the
establishment of the euro, investing in the assets of Irish banks was translated into a rational
investment for international banks, in large part through the metrics of the credit ratings
agencies. The paper concludes by revisiting the question of how we should understand the
specifics of particular financial crises in conjunction with the general dynamics of financialisation
- pointing to the importance of "translation" processes in creating social rationalities and the
significance of "market liberalism" as a social formation in enabling these translations and
promoting financialisation
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
Crisis; Financialisation; Ireland; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
11988 |
| Depositing User: |
Prof. Sean O Riain
|
| Date Deposited: |
03 Dec 2019 14:16 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
The Economic and Social Review |
| Publisher: |
Tara |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
Repository Staff Only(login required)
 |
Item control page |
Downloads per month over past year
Origin of downloads
