Real and Symbolic Economy, Finances and Global/Local Relations
The increase in the autonomous character of financial flows has progressed even more with the use of Internet for financial transactions. Financial capital has almost completely escaped from any control. This resulted in increased speculation and finally to financial crises, such as in 2008-2009. Many commentators have explained this crisis by the fact that the financial sector is now detached from what is called « the real economy ». This article examines this expression, in the context of the increasing virtual character of financial capital. Moreover, it makes a link between the finance-real economy relation and one important topic of modern anthropology, that is, the relation between the local and the global, analyzed here as the division between place and delocation.