Securing Finance, Mobilizing Risk

The important achievement of John Morris' Securing Finance, Mobilizing Risk is to bring the insights of the cultural economy literature to bear on the problematics of international political economy. The result is a conceptually and empirically sophisticated account that offers fresh insight into the contemporary operation of central banking and the way financial risk is governed. - Martijn Konings, University of Sydney, Australia At a time of growing perceived threats to financial stability from sources ranging from climate change to cybercrime, John Morris offers a lively and penetrating analysis of how and why the Bank of England's attitudes toward stability risk and its measurement and management have been transformed in the years prior to and since the global financial crisis, and with what consequences. Understanding the Bank's orientation to stability risk as a form of `speculative security', Morris provides an account that will be of interest across the gamut of critical social studies of money and finance. - Brett Christophers, Uppsala University, Sweden John Morris astutely analyses the fine line that the Bank of England navigates between taming risk and speculating on risk. His attentiveness to misfires and improvisations in financial discourse reinvigorates the debate on financial performativity, and pushes it in new directions. Strongly recommended to anyone interested in the complex interrelations between finance and security, and the growing financial security literature. - Marieke de Goede, University of Amsterdam