A phantom state? The de-traditionalization of money, the international financial system and international financial centres

Abstract

In what ways can we write about the 'politics' of international money? This paper is an attempt to answer this question in three different but related ways, each of which forms a major section of the paper. First, we attempt to describe international money as a hybrid of time, space and risk with increasingly formidable communicative demands. Second, we attempt to describe the structures of governance of international money, concentrating especially on the four main actor-networks of nation-states, the media, money capitalists and machines. Third, we try to settle some of the claims made in the previous two sections by reference to the de-traditionalization of the City of London over the last 30 years or so. The paper concludes with a short disquisition on the concept of the 'public sphere' as it might be applied to the world of international money.