Agency, power, and state–firm relations in global financial networks

Abstract

In response to Töpfer’s incisive critique of how current work on global production networks and global financial networks (GFNs) have been too firm-centric and reliant on neoliberal market framings, this commentary highlights three key points for developing a deeper conceptualization of the state in financial processes and networks. The first addresses the role of the state and inter-firm relations, the second deals with conceptualizations of power and agency, and the third is a call to go boldly beyond authoritarian capitalist regimes in moving toward a state-led conceptualization of GFNs.