Daniel Souleles

Daniel Souleles is an Associate Professor in the Governance, Culture & Learning Unit within the Department of Business, Humanities and Law at Copenhagen Business School (CBS). He holds a PhD in Applied Anthropology from Columbia University and conducts ethnographic research on financial capitalism, economic value, political systems, and social inequality in the United States.

Research Interests: His work spans Economic and Political Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Applied Research Methods. He investigates how wealth, work, and worry are produced and distributed under financial capitalism, with fieldwork on private equity, venture capital, employee-owned firms (ESOPs), algorithmic trading, and legislative institutions. A central theme is the cultures of finance and the creation and destruction of social inequality.

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on the epistemology of financial markets, the moral dimensions of economic life, and the possibilities for alternative economic models. Themes across his work include value theory, subjectivity formation, ignorance and knowledge distribution, and democratic innovation. He often employs ethnographic humor and narrative to unpack elite financial cultures.

Scientific Contributions:

• Author of Songs of Profit, Songs of Loss (2019) and Whoosh Goes the Market (2024)
• Editor of People before Markets: An Alternative Casebook (2022)
• Published in leading journals: Economy and Society, Economic Anthropology, Critique of Anthropology, Current Anthropology

Advising and Grants: While no specific students or grants are listed in the provided text, Daniel Souleles is actively engaged in research leadership through editorial roles and special issues. He co-edits thematic collections and contributes to shaping discourse in economic anthropology. His research projects include work on design return on investment (DROI) and data-driven finance, suggesting involvement in interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research initiatives.

Labs and Teams: No formal lab or research team is mentioned, but he collaborates closely with scholars such as Johan Gersel and Morten Sørensen Thaning, particularly in editing and co-authoring works that challenge market-centric paradigms and advocate for human-centered economic alternatives.