The rise of digital financialisation: The case of India

Jain, Sudeep; Gabor, Daniela

Abstract

Traditional notions of financialisation require updating to study the reorganisation of finance around digital infrastructures. We introduce the concept of digital financialisation, defined as the often-coerced merging of two hitherto separate aspects of citizens’ lives–interactions using digital technologies and financial transactions–into a new hybrid realm. This realm is undergirded by an infrastructure that harvests citizens’ data, which companies can monetise and governments can use for political surveillance. In developing countries, the state plays a key role in creating surveillance infrastructures, often using coercive means in the name of financial inclusion, as the demonetisation and Aadhaar projects in India show. Unlike the industry-finance conflict in ‘analogue’ financialisation, digital financialisation involves domestic and cross-border conflicts between tech and finance companies for control of the hybrid realm. The state mediates these conflicts. In India, it deploys a narrative of technocultural nationalism to cultivate its domestic political constituencies and downplay its reliance on foreign technology.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 2, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jan 3, 2020
• Publication Date: Jul 28, 2020
• Deposit Date: Nov 9, 2020
• Journal: New Political Economy
• Print ISSN: 1356-3467
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9923
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 25
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 813-828
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2019.1708879
• Keywords: Political Science and International Relations; Geography, Planning and Development; Development
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6726601
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cnpe20; Published: 2020-01-03