Fintech as invasive infrastructure: a critical discourse analysis of corporate newswires and press releases, 1995–2021

IF 3.2 2区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS Socio-Economic Review Pub Date : 2024-05-22 DOI:10.1093/ser/mwae033

Terri Friedline, Kimberlee Stewart, Carson Bolinger, Anna K. Wood

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Abstract

Financial technologies or ‘fintech’—an array of digital technologies ranging from mobile banking and digital payment systems to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies—are heralded for solving problems of access to financial products and services and improving people’s participation in the economy. However, we contend that fintech is an invasive infrastructure by learning from Indigenous theorizing of oil and gas pipelines alongside concepts of predatory inclusion and obfuscation. We use critical discourse analysis to study finance, technology and social media companies’ language over nearly three decades of newswires and press releases that promote new retail financial products and services. We develop themes of new products old promises, benevolent exploitation, efficient obfuscation and information extraction. Similar to oil and gas pipelines within the project of settler colonialism, our findings show how fintech operates as invasive infrastructure by serving as a key link for connecting oppressed and marginalized peoples to companies for predation and extraction.

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作为侵入性基础设施的金融科技：对 1995-2021 年企业新闻电讯和新闻稿的批判性话语分析

金融技术或 "金融科技"--从移动银行和数字支付系统到加密货币和区块链技术的一系列数字技术--被誉为能够解决人们获取金融产品和服务的问题，提高人们对经济的参与度。然而，我们从土著人对石油和天然气管道的理论研究中，结合掠夺性包容和混淆概念，认为金融科技是一种侵入性基础设施。我们使用批判性话语分析来研究金融、科技和社交媒体公司近三十年来推广新零售金融产品和服务的新闻电讯和新闻稿中的语言。我们提出了新产品旧承诺、善意利用、高效混淆和信息提取等主题。与定居殖民主义项目中的石油和天然气管道类似，我们的研究结果表明了金融科技如何作为入侵性基础设施，成为连接受压迫和边缘化人群与公司进行掠夺和榨取的关键纽带。

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来源期刊

Socio-Economic Review Multiple-

CiteScore

6.80

自引率

10.80%

发文量

期刊介绍： Originating in the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE), Socio-Economic Review (SER) is part of a broader movement in the social sciences for the rediscovery of the socio-political foundations of the economy. Devoted to the advancement of socio-economics, it deals with the analytical, political and moral questions arising at the intersection between economy and society. Articles in SER explore how the economy is or should be governed by social relations, institutional rules, political decisions, and cultural values. They also consider how the economy in turn affects the society of which it is part, for example by breaking up old institutional forms and giving rise to new ones. The domain of the journal is deliberately broadly conceived, so new variations to its general theme may be discovered and editors can learn from the papers that readers submit. To enhance international dialogue, Socio-Economic Review accepts the submission of translated articles that are simultaneously published in a language other than English. In pursuit of its program, SER is eager to promote interdisciplinary dialogue between sociology, economics, political science and moral philosophy, through both empirical and theoretical work. Empirical papers may be qualitative as well as quantitative, and theoretical papers will not be confined to deductive model-building. Papers suggestive of more generalizable insights into the economy as a domain of social action will be preferred over narrowly specialized work. While firmly committed to the highest standards of scholarly excellence, Socio-Economic Review encourages discussion of the practical and ethical dimensions of economic action, with the intention to contribute to both the advancement of social science and the building of a good economy in a good society.