Gambling Debt: Iceland's Rise and Fall in the Global Economy - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607323346 ISBN 13: 9781607323341

Verlag: University Press of Colorado, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

Gambling Debt is a game-changing contribution to the discussion of economic crises and neoliberal financial systems and strategies. Iceland’s 2008 financial collapse was the first case in a series of meltdowns, a warning of danger in the global order. This full-scale anthropology of financialization and the economic crisis broadly discusses this momentous bubble and burst and places it in theoretical, anthropological, and global historical context through descriptions of the complex developments leading to it and the larger social and cultural implications and consequences.

Chapters from anthropologists, sociologists, historians, economists, and key local participants focus on the neoliberal policies—mainly the privatization of banks and fishery resources—that concentrated wealth among a select few, skewed the distribution of capital in a way that Iceland had never experienced before, and plunged the country into a full-scale economic crisis. Gambling Debt significantly raises the level of understanding and debate on the issues relevant to financial crises, painting a portrait of the meltdown from many points of view—from bankers to schoolchildren, from fishers in coastal villages to the urban poor and immigrants, and from artists to philosophers and other intellectuals.

This book is for anyone interested in financial troubles and neoliberal politics as well as students and scholars of anthropology, sociology, economics, philosophy, political science, business, and ethics.

Publication supported in part by the National Science Foundation.

Contributors:
Vilhjálmur Árnason, Ásmundur Ásmundsson, Jón Gunnar Bernburg, James Carrier, Sigurlína Davíðsdóttir, Dimitra Doukas, Níels Einarsson, Einar Mar Guðmundsson, Tinna Grétarsdóttir, Birna Gunnlaugsdóttir, Guðný S. Guðbjörnsdóttir, Pamela Joan Innes, Guðni Th. Jóhannesson, Örn D. Jónsson, Hannes Lárusson, Kristín Loftsdóttir, James Maguire, Már Wolfgang Mixa, Evelyn Pinkerton, Hulda Proppé, James G. Rice, Rögnvaldur J. Sæmundsson, Unnur Dís Skaptadóttir, Margaret Willson

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

E. Paul Durrenberger is emeritus professor of anthropology from the University of Iowa and Penn State University and recipient of the Society for Applied Anthropology's Malinowski Award for 2014. He has done fieldwork in tribal and peasant areas of Thailand, Iceland, and the United States and has published a number of academic papers and books, including The Anthropological Study of Class and Consciousness and The Anthropology of Labor Unions (both UPC). Gisli Palsson is professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland and visiting professor at King’s College, London. He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and recipient of the 2000 Rosenstiel Award from the University of Miami. Among his books is Anthropologies of Life: Nature, Culture and Society (forthcoming).

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Gambling Debt

Iceland's Rise and Fall in the Global Economy

By E. Paul Durrenberger, Gisli Palsson

University Press of Colorado

Copyright © 2015 University Press of Colorado
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-60732-334-1

Contents

Preface E. PAUL DURRENBERGER AND GISLI PALSSON, 
Introduction: The Banality of Financial Evil GISLI PALSSON AND E. PAUL DURRENBERGER, 
Prologue: Some Poetic Thoughts Concerning Meltdowns EINAR MÁR GUDMUNDSSON, 
Before the Beginning, 
1. Vikings Invade Present-Day Iceland KRISTÍN LOFTSDÓTTIR, 
2. Exploiting Icelandic History: 2000 — 2008 GUDNI TH. JÓHANNESSON, 
3. Free Market Ideology, Crony Capitalism, and Social Resilience ÖRN D. JÓNSSON AND RÖGNVALDUR J. SÆMUNDSSON, 
4. A Day in the Life of an Icelandic Banker MÁR WOLFGANG MIXA, 
5. Something Rotten in the State of Iceland: "The Production of Truth" about the Icelandic Banks VILHJÁLMUR ÁRNASON, 
After the Crash, 
6. Overthrowing the Government: A Case Study in Protest JÓN GUNNAR BERNBURG, 
7. "Welcome to the Revolution!" Voting in the Anarcho-Surrealists HULDA PROPPÉ, 
8. Creativity and Crisis TINNA GRÉTARSDÓTTIR, ÁSMUNDUR ÁSMUNDSSON, AND HANNES LÁRUSSON, 
The Magic of "Virtual" Fish, 
9. Groundtruthing Individual Transferable Quotas EVELYN PINKERTON, 
10. Virtual Fish Stink, Too JAMES MAGUIRE, 
11. The Resilience of Rural Iceland MARGARET WILLSON AND BIRNA GUNNLAUGSDÓTTIR, 
12. When Fishing Rights Go Up against Human Rights NÍELS EINARSSON, 
The Crash and Communities, 
13. Schools in Two Communities Weather the Crash GUDNY S. GUDBJÖRNSDÓTTIR AND SIGURLÍNA DAVÍDSDÓTTIR, 
14. What Happened to the Migrant Workers? UNNUR DÍS SKAPTADÓTTIR, 
15. Icelandic Language Schools after the Crash PAMELA JOAN INNES, 
16. Charity in Pre- and Post-Crisis Iceland JAMES G. RICE, 
Summing Up, 
Epilogue: The Neoliberal Con DIMITRA DOUKAS, 
Retrospect JAMES CARRIER, 
References, 
Index, 

CHAPTER 1

Vikings Invade Present-Day Iceland

* * *

Kristín Loftsdóttir is a feminist anthropologist who takes on the use of the "Business Viking" image to promote the neoliberal agenda, showing how twentieth-century schoolbooks helped set the stage and then promulgate the sexist and otherwise inaccurate historical memory of a country.

It is August 2007, a year before the economic meltdown. Muscular and half-naked with weapons in their hands and helmets on their heads, Iceland's three main business tycoons, Björgólfur Guðmundsson, Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, and Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson flicker across my television screen, photoshopped as Vikings. I'm somewhat astonished because these images are airing in the context of an interview I gave earlier in the day. I had given a talk at my university about the similarity between the current icon of the successful Icelandic businessman — or "Business Viking" — and textbook portrayals of Icelanders from the early twentieth century touting the uniqueness of Icelanders. I had noticed this similarity when collecting data on two entirely different projects — one on Icelandic music performance, the other on images of Africa in schoolbooks. The interview decorated with the doctored images was supposed to be about this comparison I had presented at my university earlier that day. The images doctored by the news staff intensify the entertainment value of my results, which, after all, is what the news is about these days. The narrator proclaims: "Image and reality don't always go together, as this comparison was only done for entertainment value." I'm puzzled. Which comparison is the narrator calling entertaining — the one I made in my interview or their visual illustration of it?

I start with this story because it vividly reflects the hegemonic authority of the Business Viking narrative in Iceland prior to the economic crash. The power and pervasiveness of that narrative made it absurd to locate the present-day nationalistic image of the Business Viking within a historical frame of nationalism and masculinity. It must be stressed that these news reporters still wanted to create a space for my critical analysis within the context of news that mainly glorified these men and their business adventures. Perhaps it was difficult to do so at that time without placing it as the last story, reflecting how critical analysis was at the margins of society.

In this chapter I outline this similarity between the early twentieth-century textbook portrayal of the settlement of Iceland and the mid-2000s celebration of the Business Vikings in Iceland. I assert that ideas about Iceland's recent economic expansion were deeply shaped by nationalistic symbols that carry a strong gendered component and touch upon longstanding anxieties regarding Iceland's historical position in the world. In turn, these symbolic self-perceptions were part of intensified neoliberalism in Iceland.

The Icelandic "economic miracle," as it was called at the time, began in the mid-1990s when Iceland adopted strong neoliberal economic policies that promoted the gradual liberalization of banks and capital flows and emphasized global integration as demonstrated by the adoption of the EES [European Economic Space, later changed to European Economic Area — ed.] treaty in 1994 (Ólafsson 2008; Sigurjónsson and Mixa 2011). The October 2008 crash, when the government bailed out three major commercial banks, created a paradigm shift in which this narrative lost its power almost overnight. As if we were in the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen in which a child suddenly declares, "The emperor has no clothes," the aftermath of the crash caused some Icelanders to suggest that the Business Vikings who had been so celebrated before the crash now could be guilty of treason (Jóhannesson 2009a).

My theoretical perspective is influenced by postcolonial theorists who focus on the interrelationship between past and present (Dirks 1992) and by feminist critical thinkers who emphasize the creation of gender-specific perspectives in the context of nationalism (Yuval-Davis 1997). My work is also influenced by classic anthropology's holistic perspective, which holds that no aspect of human society can be understood without considering its relationship to other aspects, and the importance of investigating phenomena cross-culturally (Durrenberger and Erem 2007, 6). When applied to the Icelandic economic crash, anthropology teaches us the importance of investigating the global and historical context of the crash, and the need to look at economic aspects in relation to other spheres of Icelandic society (Loftsdóttir 2010, 190). In other words, the economics have to be analyzed in the context of larger social and cultural questions (Schwegler 2009) and as integrated into wider webs of meaning and selfhood.

THEORETICAL OVERVIEW

Intensified global processes have led to new questions regarding national identity. When scholars first started to address the effects of globalization, some predicted it would undermine nationalism (Appadurai 1996). Nations, however, seem to remain one of the most important everyday settings in which people imagine themselves (Ginsburg, Abu-Lughod, and Larkin 2002, 11). Furthermore, "culture," once a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University Press of Colorado
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1607323346
• ISBN 13: 9781607323341
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 284
• Herausgeber: Durrenberger E. Paul, Palsson Gisli
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland