Methodological pluralism in critical finance research.
Goethe University Frankfurt, 3-4 July 2025.

Colleagues are organising a workshop on methods in critical finance studies, to be held at the Goethe University Frankfurt in July this year.

[C]ritical 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.

 

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.