Workshop: the Financialization of the Economy

The process of financialization of the economy greatly divides those who study and talk about it with demonizing positions on the one hand and extreme defense on the other. The objective of the workshop is therefore first and foremost to give tools for understanding an important phenomenon and to enable students to understand it and evaluate its implications on different aspects of the functioning of contemporary societies: from the macroeconomic and political level to the cultural and everyday life.
Financialization is one of the most important phenomena of the past 50 years, because it is changing all of our societies: operating transnationally, thus limiting the ability of governments to act, and also affecting people's daily lives. There are many definitions of financialization, and they generally tend to link this phenomenon with the increasing weight of financial activities within the global economy. There is, however, one very simple and operational definition, and that is that financialization is an expansion of capitalist activity into new areas, thus transforming the "value" of an increasing number of assets (e.g., real estate and commodities) gives use value to investment value.

The workshop will provide knowledge and skills for understanding the phenomenon of financialization of the economy and its implications in different areas. Some little-covered but important content will be addressed with a practical and engaging approach through a connection between the theoretical part and the practical consequences. Financialization is a multidisciplinary topic involving economics, finance, sociology and history. The course will involve all these aspects to connect them and offer a complete picture of the phenomenon and explain its complexity. In particular, the workshop will address the following topics:
- Historical and practical analysis of the great social and cultural economic change that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s of the past century
- Trend and growth of private wealth and its distribution
- Explanation of how banks became creators of money and thus allowed the explosion of "leverage," which is the fundamental tool that enabled the great growth of financialization
- An analysis of the "wealth divide," a phenomenon that has been little explored and instead underlies the current development of inequality
- A strong focus on the impact of financialization on all aspects of human life with a breadth of examples and case studies