abstract: 'Speculation has become a normalized occupational strategy and quotidian

  economic rationality that extends throughout society. Although there are

  many contemporary articulations of speculation, this article focuses on

  contract labor as a domain of financialization. Seen through this lens,

  contract labor can be understood as a speculative investment strategy

  wherein individuals leverage whatever assets they have at their disposal

  - savings, time, bodily health - to capture economic advantages. In

  particular, we explore the speculative practices of healthy individuals

  who enroll in pharmaceutical drug trials as their primary or critical

  source of income. Mobilizing speculative logics to maximize the money

  they can earn from their clinical trial participation, these contract

  workers employ what we term a future-income-over-immediate-pay calculus.

  This speculative calculus valorizes fictional projections of significant

  long-term future income over present financial opportunities. For the

  economically precarious individuals in our study, we argue that rather

  than effectively increasing their income, speculation on contract work

  serves a compensatory function, providing an important - but ultimately

  inadequate - sense of control over market conditions that thrive upon

  workers'' economic insecurity.'
affiliation: 'Fisher, JA (Corresponding Author), Univ N Carolina, Dept Social Med,
  333E MacNider Hall,Campus Box 7240, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA.

  Fisher, JA (Corresponding Author), Univ N Carolina, Ctr Bioeth, 333E MacNider Hall,Campus
  Box 7240, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA.

  Fisher, Jill A., Univ N Carolina, Dept Social Med, 333E MacNider Hall,Campus Box
  7240, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA.

  Fisher, Jill A., Univ N Carolina, Ctr Bioeth, Social Med, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
  USA.

  Wood, Megan M.; Monahan, Torin, Univ N Carolina, Dept Commun, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
  USA.'
author: Fisher, Jill A. and Wood, Megan M. and Monahan, Torin
author-email: jill.fisher@unc.edu
author_list:
- family: Fisher
  given: Jill A.
- family: Wood
  given: Megan M.
- family: Monahan
  given: Torin
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1080/17530350.2020.1850504
earlyaccessdate: DEC 2020
eissn: 1753-0369
files: []
issn: 1753-0350
journal: JOURNAL OF CULTURAL ECONOMY
keywords: 'Clinical trials; independent contractors; financialization; labor;

  precarity; speculation'
keywords-plus: PHASE-I; WORK; PARTICIPATION; KNOWLEDGE; ECONOMY; CRISIS; ETHICS; GIG
language: English
month: JUL 4
number: '4'
number-of-cited-references: '76'
pages: 464-484
papis_id: 1d71d905f77a9339b66f30e75ef432ae
ref: Fisher2021speculatingprecariou
times-cited: '4'
title: 'Speculating on precarious income: finance cultures and the risky strategies
  of healthy volunteers in clinical drug trials'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000600699900001
usage-count-last-180-days: '2'
usage-count-since-2013: '11'
volume: '14'
web-of-science-categories: Cultural Studies; Economics; Sociology
year: '2021'