Crafting the Financial-Subject: A Qualitative Study of Young Workers’ Experiences in Financialised Pension Investment in Hong Kong

This article applies the concepts of the financial-subject and micro-foundation of financialisation to young workers’ experiences with Hong Kong’s financialised pension regime. The results of our qualitative analysis show that many respondents doubt and belittle their financial investment for retire...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of social policy Vol. 49; no. 2; pp. 323 - 341
Main Authors AU-YEUNG, TAT CHOR, CHAN, KA KI
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.04.2020
Subjects
Culture
Employment
Finance
Illiteracy
Inequality
Investments
Investors
Irrationality
Morality
National security
Neoliberalism
Pensions
Personhood
Politics
Public finance
Qualitative research
Rationality
Respondents
Retirement
Risk behavior
Risk taking
Securities markets
Social policy
Socioeconomic factors
Subjectivity
Workers
Younger workers
Hong Kong China
China
micro-foundation of financialisation
young workers
Hong Kong
entrepreneurial self
Financial-subject
pension investment
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Summary:This article applies the concepts of the financial-subject and micro-foundation of financialisation to young workers’ experiences with Hong Kong’s financialised pension regime. The results of our qualitative analysis show that many respondents doubt and belittle their financial investment for retirement. In response to the compulsory investment required by the government and the fact that their aspirations for security in later life seemed unfulfilled, some young workers undertook ‘uninformed’ investment and ‘age-led’ risk taking. The findings also show that employment precarity translates into investment precarity owing to workers’ unstable incomes and contributions; labour inequalities are reflected in financial inequalities. Arguably, the neoliberal crafting of the young financial-subject, including constructions of financial irresponsibility, irrationality, and illiteracy, is fraught with tensions, turning workers into investors and using finance to satisfy socio-economic needs. It contributes to social policy studies by connecting selfhood and institutions, and calls for questions about the future of financialised pensions.
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ISSN:0047-2794
1469-7823
DOI:10.1017/S0047279419000345