Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou is the author of Speculative Communities: Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World (University of Chicago Press, 2022). He is Associate Professor of Sociology at University College London, where he leads the Sociology & Social Theory Research Group, and he serves on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Sociology. His current book project, tentatively titled Real Fake, is an intellectual history of distortion in finance capitalism.

Speculative Communities investigates the financial world’s influence on the social imagination, unravelling its radical effects on our personal and political lives.


“A masterful critique of the financialisation of everyday life. A novel and exciting academic contribution, and a critical reference point for those seeking to organise in a world defined by the logic of speculation”.

— Grace Blakeley, author of Stolen

Buy at: University of Chicago Press | Bookshop.org (UK) | Bookshop.org (USA) | London Review Bookshop

Read a review of the book, listen to my interview in Tribune Magazine, or watch a video from the launch event at the LRB Bookshop.

Financial markets practising money alchemy through mathematics and astrology, generated by DALL·E 2 OpenAI software.

Upcoming book —


Real Fake: An intellectual history of distortion

What is the relationship between magic and finance? How did alchemy become a defining feature of our financialized world? And how does market-driven distortion produce the elusive realities, cosmologies and conspiracies of modern capitalism?

[ ← Image of ‘financial alchemy’ generated by DALL·E 2 OpenAI software ]

Featured events

 

Monday 17 January
19:00 – 20:00

London Review Bookshop
UK book launch

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Wednesday 26 January
11:00 – 12:15 EST

The Strand Bookstore, NYC
US book launch

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Wednesday 11 May
19:00 – 21:00 CET

Ark Books, Copenhagen
Denmark book launch

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Wednesday 8 June
17:00 – 18:30 CET

Max Planck Institute, Cologne
MPIfG Public Lecture

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Tuesday 5 July
18:00 – 20:00 CET

KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Germany book launch

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Saturday 9 July
16:45 – 18:15 CET

SASE 2022, Amsterdam
Author-meets-critics

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Aris on Twitter