How to survive the asset economy

• Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
• Department of Political and Social Sciences

Join Annaliese Merfield as she presents her recent research at the first session of the 2026-2027 Political Economy Working Group

What does it mean to be financially included in an economy in which access to wealth increasingly depends upon owning appreciating assets?

Drawing on ethnographic research with cryptocurrency communities in the United States, this presentation examines how younger Americans have turned to crypto amid declining social mobility and experiences of financial insecurity. 

Annaliese Milano Merfield is a Max Weber Fellow and an economic and digital anthropologist. Her current research examines how digital technologies are implicated in young adults’ pursuit of financial security amid experiences of downward mobility and disenchantment with democratic governance. It asks how and why young adults turn to the digital world to imagine alternatives to traditional institutions, contest prevailing logics of distribution and authority, and experiment with new ways of governing collective life.

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