Dollars and Delusion: Global Finance, Cultural Trauma and Ethno-economic Subjectivity in Post-boom Iceland

Abstract

Paradoxically, recent financial crises reveal both the ultimate collapse of 'national capitalism' and the increased prominence of economic nationalism. This article examines the Icelandic case in order to analyse socio-cultural dynamics of economic downfall and to offer an approach to investigate (post-)neoliberal impressions of the nation as economic entity. It employs Piotr Sztompka's work to assess Iceland's economic meltdown in 2008 as traumatizing change that triggered a project of (national) self-transformation. This project, dissected as mnemonic phenomenon, entails reframing the success of bankers as deceit, a call for the purge of politics and business, and various adaptive efforts initiated to realize a sustainable existence in tune with Iceland's 'real' history and geography. We stress that such dissection reveals the influence of macro-economic tendencies on principles and practices of collectivity, and illustrates the relevance of a focus on ethno-economic subjectivity to study the lived experience of those confronted with contemporary politics of finance.