Engaging elites, ethnographically: studying powerful actors in sustainable finance

Anthropologists have persuasively made a case for critical ethnographic engagement with elites in recent years. This presents multiple challenges including access and interpretative influence. Wealthy elites have enormous power in many domains of life, not least because of the idea that they “make the world a better place” when they invest their money. Drawing on experiences as someone who first worked in sustainable finance, and who has subsequently undertaken multiple case studies into it, I describe different strategies for ethnographic engagement with powerful financial actors that I have adopted. I propose that what are often derided as “applied goals” of research can help to forge collaborations that enable new forms of participant observation. These can generate original theoretical insights, furthering critical analysis of powerful actors in sustainable finance.