Methodological Pluralism in Critical Finance Research (3-4 July 2025)

After a decade and a half of rapid expansion under the shadow of the 2008 crisis, critical finance scholarship has developed a remarkably pluralist research agenda. Topics range from financial hegemony to subordination, from sustainable to digital finance, from asset managers to hedge funds, from central to shadow banking, and more. Scholars have studied the transatlantic core of global finance as well as its manifestations in developing and emerging markets, international and comparative dimensions of finance, the actions of financial elites and processes of everyday financialisation. As research topics have multiplied, so have research methodologies. Current works draw on a wide range of different sources from large commercial data to experiments, from public archives to digital records, from expert interviews to field notes, and more. Scholars use numerous tools to generate insights from these sources and a wide range of different approaches to interpret them effectively.

On 3-4 July 2025, this conference seeks to explicitly engage with and foster a conversation about this methodological pluralism. It invites scholars to reflect on their own research practices, exchange ideas about different sources, tools, and approaches, and to discuss their unique contribution to our collective understanding of global finance and financialised capitalism. Our aim is to showcase a wide range of empirical sources and analytical tools, and to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities they provide.

Topics and focus

To that end, we invite interested researchers to present papers – both published and unpublished – that can spark a conversation about methodological challenges and opportunities in the critical study of global finance. This may include papers with a primary focus on method but conventional research papers are also welcome. In both cases, we ask authors to discuss the methods that were applied to studying finance.

For example, we are interested in how scholars use the following data sources and methods in their research:

AI tools / archives / audio-visual data / balance sheets / behavioural experiments / company reports / descriptive statistics / data terminals / digital methods / expert interviews / field notes / financial accounts / focus groups / grey literature / industry events / network analysis / legal analysis / newspapers / policy documents / participant observation / public speeches / satellite data / social media / spatial data / survey data / visualisations / web scraping

The conference will feature a keynote lecture by Dariusz Wójcik, Professor of Financial Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and author of the recently published ‘Atlas of Finance‘ (Yale University Press, 2024).

Submissions

Please submit a short abstract (300 words) which clearly indicates the empirical sources and/or methodological tools that will be discussed. Please send your abstracts by 15 February 2025 to globalfinancemethods@gmail.com

Funds are available to support travel expenses for a number of unfunded early career scholars. If you would like to apply for financial assistance, please indicate this in a brief statement when submitting your abstract.

Important dates

• Please submit your abstract by: 15 February 2025
• Notifications of acceptance by: 15 March 2025
• Registration due: 15 April 2025
• Papers due: 15 June 2025
• Conference dates: 3-4 July 2025