The case for financialization

The tempestuous rise of finance in contemporary capitalism has incited a frantic search for new conceptual tools to make empirical and theoretical sense of it. Financialization and the theoretical connotations it carries, is one such new conceptual tool. Although a growing number of scholars are using the concept, its dispersal over the disciplines and relevant research communities — as a brief analysis of the ISI database and other databases suggests —, is still rather limited. On the basis of a constructive reading of the older debate over 'conceptual stretching' in the political sciences, the author presents three conditions for conceptual success, to wit: stay focused on the empirical content, look for the conceptual value added, keep causal mechanisms in mind. Combined with the hard but mundane work of organizing workshops, special issues, setting up professional charters, that might just do the trick.