The challenges of assets: Anatomy of an economic form

Abstract

In recent years, the terms ‘asset’, ‘assetization’, ‘asset form’ and ‘asset condition’ have gained prominence. Closely related to established notions of financialization and capitalization, they promise novel analytical insights into these processes. Why has assetization assumed such an important role in the social studies of finance, geography, sociology, political economy and beyond, both conceptually and empirically? Introducing our special section on ‘The challenges of assets’, this paper reconstructs current conceptual debates about assetization and argues that the concept addresses the complex temporalities of financialization that are simultaneously contractual, de-risked, guaranteed, speculative and uncertain. The central role of property in the definition of the asset holds an unfulfilled promise to elucidate in empirical terms how legal and political relations buttress financialized capitalism.

Keywords:

• assetization
• financialization
• property
• publics
• temporality

Acknowledgements

This special section results from a session at the 2021 DGS/ÖGS Congress in Vienna. We would like to thank the editors of Economy & Society for their instructive feedback and the opportunity to publish the contributions in their journal. Elsa Müller has greatly helped us with preparing the paper for submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethics approval statement

Where necessary, and in accordance with local and national regulations, authorization and permission by local review boards and participants have been obtained prior to research and publication of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

The research has been funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) – Projektnummer 424638267 – TRR 294 ‘Structural Change of Property’.

Notes on contributors

Ute Tellmann

Ute Tellmann is a professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt. Her research interests include the genealogy of economic liberalism, economic temporality, financialized housing and a social theory of debt. She furthers a cultural sociological and political theory perspective on economic phenomena. Her work has appeared in Economy & Society, Theory & Culture and Society, Distinktion, Soziale System, among other journals.

Veit Braun

Veit Braun is a research associate at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. His research is situated at the intersection of law, economy and science. His forthcoming book At the end of property (Bristol University Press) explores the ongoing crisis of property in the seed industry.

Barbara Brandl

Barbara Brandl is a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt am Main. Her research focuses on the intersection of political economy and technology development especially in the field of the finance. Her work has appeared in Socio-Economic Review, Review of International Political Economy, Science, Technology & Human Values, among other journals.