So what is a Dutch anthropologist doing talking to bankers in the City of London? That was certainly the first thing bankers themselves wanted to know before they would even consider meeting with me in secret.

Look, I'd tell them via email, everybody hates you. Do you hate yourself? No, you don't. Then why don't you tell me about your life, your ups and downs and what an average working day for you looks like? I'll work your words into a portrait of a banker as a human being, we'll anonymise it because you've probably signed a document saying you'll never speak to the press, and then we'll post it on my Guardian blog. Who knows, when they read about you in your own words, people outside the financial sector may change their minds about you — or at least come to a more nuanced and realistic view of what people like you are all about.

This was my pitch and most of the time it failed. Why should I invest time to contribute to a better understanding of my sector, some bankers replied, when all outsiders want is a reason to hate us? Others politely indicated they didn't trust journalists or the Guardian. Or they didn't trust me; what is a Dutch anthropologist doing talking to bankers in the City of London?

Before I explain why, here are the words of one financial worker who did sit for a self-portrait, the first of 10 to do so. He is involved in mergers & acquisitions (M&A, the buying and selling of companies) and explained that when a company is in the process of being sold, confidentiality is everything:

"This is one of the reasons we invent code names for deals. I enjoy thinking about these very expensive and busy and important bankers convening a meeting to brainstorm about a code name. Some banks prefer cartoon characters, others Greek gods or anagrams. Often they like to keep some element of logic. When there are four contenders to buy a certain company, they will name them after the four Dalton brothers in the Lucky Luke comic strip."

And here's a former M&A banker who agreed to meet:

"Let me tell you, the financial sector is not rocket science. There is a lot of lingo, I mean a lot, and you have to master all that jargon. But you don't have to be brilliant to work in finance; you have to be smart enough. And then you have to be willing to put in really, really long hours. And be competitive. It is an endurance game, in part."

Another banker who would talk but declined to sit for a portrait, compared his work to that of a GP: "You spend many hours memorising terms (body parts, diseases, treatments) and learning to recognise patterns. Then you put in very long hours and collect a nice salary, while employing your jargon to intimidate outsiders."

That's the sort of thing I've been talking to bankers about, and why I am beginning to be captivated by them. Beneath the layers of lingo there are subcultures and dress codes and ways of speech, their mutual stereotypes, conventions, taboos and of course jokes: "Every economist knows that there are three kinds of economists; there are those who know how to count, and there are those who don't."

It is quite a change for me, exploring bankers. I used to do anthropological fieldwork among students in the slums of Cairo, then worked as a Middle East correspondent going back and forth between Hamas leaders and Jewish settlers. The latter were people who knew they might die at any moment for their convictions, and had made their peace with that. Meanwhile those students lived off less than a dollar a day.

Compare this to the bankers and I have moved from freestyle boxing to billiards. Then again, readers' responses may not be that different.

When I wrote about Israel and the Palestinians some readers would judge an article exclusively by whether it was likely to make one camp look good or the other. In particular, pieces that humanised their objects of hate elicited very aggressive letters to the editor – or worse. I expect the same thing with bankers.

The Middle East is a pretty intense place but unless you have family living or serving there, for most readers it is also a pretty far away place. Finance is not. If somebody told you your savings aren't safe, she'd have your full and immediate attention, wouldn't she? But if she then said the words "bank reform" many would have to suppress a yawn.

This is paradoxical. Finance directly affects everyone's interests, but many have a hard time maintaining their interest in it. But as the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the following three years have shown, the financial world is too important to leave to the bankers – in fact in some countries democracy is beginning to look like the system by which electorates decide which politician gets to implement what the markets dictate. The people in this very powerful sector are worth learning more about. And the good news is, when you listen to them in their own words, that can actually be pretty entertaining. And humanising.

Now for the blog. Here's the idea. You have the internet and today's technology. You have the classic techniques of narrative journalism and anthropological fieldwork. And you have this enormously important yet devilishly complex thing called the world of finance.

What if you mix those? Is that a way to make the world of finance accessible to outsiders who are interested but can't find an entry point? When I started interviewing financial workers this summer, I knew as little as the average Guardian reader. So I plan to start at the beginning. Every interview will be posted on the web, with comment threads open to let other outsiders to ask questions and, who knows, to let insiders to elaborate on the material. Over time I hope to build an intellectual candy shop full of interesting stuff about the world of finance, stuff that will then help you as a reader make better sense of the news.

But the question "tell me what an average working day for you looks like" has proven quite productive already. It turns out there's a clear divide in the world of finance between those who see their children in the morning, and those who see them in the evening. The ones who work in tandem with the markets have to get up really, really early to be ready to go at their desks when the markets open. These see their children in the evening.

The other part of the financial world works independently of the markets, for instance lawyers and those in M&A. They can take their children to nursery or school, but work late pretty much every evening. When you see financial workers having lunch, it's always this second category. People who work with the markets have their lunches next to their computer screens.

The hours some of these people put in seem completely insane. Here's the PR officer for a brokerage firm.

"I get up around 4.30am. I watch some news, see what the Asian markets are doing, read my Reuters, Bloomberg, perhaps do some Skypeing, make phone calls, watch or listen to the BBC. I am building an understanding of what is happening, and what will happen. I write my report and as the day progresses and the markets move, I may update it. Most days I throw in the towel around 6-6.30pm. Unless there's more radio to do, then I might go on 'til seven or eight."

Even after only a couple of dozen interviews, it seems fair to say that this is not a sector for whiners. The same PR officer, a veteran of four decades in the City, said this about the top bankers, the ones with the huge bonuses: "In the old days the caricature was of a fat man with a cigar in one hand and a glass of brandy in the other. In the current environment somebody like that wouldn't last a week."

The subtitle to the blog reads "going native in the world of finance". It's a nod to the risk that you identify too much with the people you are studying. That after a while in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, human sacrifice begins to look pretty reasonable. It is happening to me already, a little bit. I also remind myself there's a clear bias in my sample: would Gordon Gekko have made time for a Dutch anthropologist?

Still the bankers are getting under my skin. If there's one thing that has suddenly begun to annoy me no end it is categorical statements about "the banks" or "bankers". I have learned by now that such generalisations obscure just how different many of the activities across the financial sector are. If you are angry about "the banks", you need to specify which parts. Otherwise you are like somebody who blames the BBC for what happened at News of the World; they are all the media, aren't they?

As I said, it's a captivating world, and often all too human. This is what a lawyer said about dress codes in the City. We were sitting in a restaurant called L'Anima, a soberly decorated place near Exchange Square, one of the largest clusters of offices in the City. He scanned the tables around him and said: "Mostly lawyers here, I think. I see no trophy wives or trophy girlfriends, no extravagantly dressed women. I see men who keep their jackets on, which is what we tend to do as lawyers – many lawyers would not want to be the first to take it off and most lawyers I know leave it on anyhow. Keeping the uniform intact makes you look solid. I see inconspicuous ties, which is also a lawyer thing. This restaurant serves very good quality food but the restaurant is not flashy, I believe only this week the Sunday Times called the interior 'boring'. Boring is good, for lawyers. We sell reliability, solidity and caution. We want our presentation to mirror that. And we often charge hefty fees, so we don't flash our wealth because then clients are going to think: wait, am I not paying too much?"

He then proceeded to compare this to the outfit of an M&A banker. These may dress in a very flashy way and drive very expensive cars. The reason is, they are selling companies for their clients, making these clients very rich. If an M&A banker radiates wealth and success, potential new clients will not think: am I paying too much? Potential clients will think: this guy has made other people very rich, he must be very good, I am going to hire him so he can make me very rich too.

On the blog you will find 10 self-portraits of financial workers. Hopefully more will follow soon. Let me say something nice about people in the financial world, to encourage them to defy their PR departments and come forward for a confidential interview. The other day I was supposed to go for an early morning swim but felt very lazy. Then I found myself thinking: get a grip you lazy Dutchman, think of those people you've been interviewing, some of whom have been up for hours already. Don't be a wanker, act like a banker. I got up, did my swim and felt much better.

The Joris Luyendijk Banking Blog launches on Thursday at 11am

Joris Luyendijk replies to your comments

lacaro says:

Joris could be interesting but 10 portraits is hardly ethnography no? Can you not find some more 'creative' ways to expand the 'fieldwork'?

I love the idea and like you I went from anthropology into journalism and think the pairing is excellent. But then I became a journalist because I kept finding stories during fieldwork (I did mine in India and a bit more in Istanbul). Or do the stories find me? Dunno.......

The latter was at a UN conference where I did a multi-layered ethnography looking at Human Rights and its representation - it was really fruitful and interesting and as it was in Turkey I had to locate it in the wider situation with the 'Kurdish problem' which was a little dangerous. But it was all grist for the mill and made me critically examine the whole discourse of Human Rights and HR activists which is actually quite problematic. Try saying that in front of most people - I know about free-style boxing!

It also made me really critical of parachute journalism so I hope you don't do the same in the City.

Meanwhile, you must be a fairly soft journalist if you think Bankers work long hours. I worked in the newsroom of a famous international broadcast org during the Iraq war there was sometimes little point in going home. I loved it though!

I look forward to your project and (ha ha) I bet the BTL gets interesting! And who knows it could even start a new movement to hug-a-banker......

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Thanks Icaro, I love the idea of hug-a-banker, preferable to hug-a-wanker surely. Don't worry about the limited scope thus far, this is a nine month project, so it's more like a pregnancy than a parachute landing.

greensox says:

I stood for election at University under a broadly Labour banner then became a teacher and then decided to go and work in the City. When I eventually have had enough I will probably return to teaching in one form or another, I have yet to vote anything other than Labour or Liberal/Lib Dem.

But of course because I am now a 'banker' I am a sociopath/bankster/cannibal and thats just the first handful of comments. When I become a teacher I will obviously be the sort of person who hugs puppies and kittens.

And I wouldn't focus on the long hours or hard work, many people work long hours and work harder physically, that's not how it works as any first year economics student will tell you otherwise Wayne Rooney would earn the same as a student nurse.

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Greensox ! If you really work in the City, why don't you get in touch and sit for a self-portrait ? JLbankingblog@gmail.com

eisbaer says:

I think what you're really getting at is that you want to look at the lives and times of the glamour-boys - the front office teams. I did a stint in the city - and let me tell you now that they're the exception rather than the rule.

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Eisbaer, get in touch, I'd love to hear more about the stint. I am still to meet my first glamour-boy, or girl. They don't seem very interested in talking to a Dutch anthropologist from the Guardian. JLbankingblog@gmail.com

thestudentspirit says:

Great initiative, and good anthropology!

Of course bankers are flesh-eating monsters of this native land, they're outrageous, do they see themselves in vampire-like terms? Vampires can work hard too, they only go to bed when the sun comes up!, usually they're aristocratic though, so i'd be interested to find out the occult metaphors they use for themselves.

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Hi studentspirit, that's a good point, it's still too early into this project to tell you how they see themselves. Thanks for the advice about occult metaphors, that's a really good one!

Heronimus says:

This is a fascinating topic, but as others have pointed out, ten portraits doesn't add up to much. The problem is one of money. I am an anthropologist and have spent the last decade discussing with my colleagues how interesting it would be to do an ethnography of banking, but who is going to fund such expensive fieldwork? Seriously: the restaurants, clubs, yachts, private jets to Caribbean islands, the cocaine. That comes in a lot more expensive than your standard year in Mumbai, the Philippines, or London's less elite circles. It has to be someone young (i.e. a PhD or early postdoc), because they are the only ones who look unthreatening enough to get people to let their guard down and there is no way they can get that kind of money.

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Heronimus these are good points. This project is going to be anthropology 2.0 or anthropology light, depending on one's preferred level of sarcasm, in the sense that I won't be working at a job somewhere in the financial sector. On the other hand, informants will be able to log-on and post / contribute to my fieldnotes. Also, if you'd do proper fieldwork it would be deep but not very wide-ranging, wouldn't it? I share your amazement that the sociologists and anthropologists haven't jumped into the world of finance in greater numbers. There's some really interesting stuff being done though, I'm sure you're familiar with Donald Mackenzie and Karel Williams? They have a new book out very soon.

PatDavers says:

I work in financial services and I know that the people in banks work hard, but not especially hard compared to those other sectors, and they're often bright, but not especially bright compared to those other sectors. So they question is: why do they earn so much more money than in other sectors?

According to classical economics (and bankers love classical economics), the high earnings in banking should attract more entrants into the market, create more competition and make earning lowers until they are roughly the same of those in other field which require a similar degree of commitment and brains.

Somewhere along the line, "market forces" are failing – but why?

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Hi Pat, great point ! At the apex of the free market, the free market does not seem to operate. So far what I hear is: look, this is a talent-based industry, a bit like soccer. Would love to hear more from you, consider sitting for a portrait if you will: JLbankingblog@gmail.com. Cheers, joris

Agamemnon1 says:

100% agree. I work at an investment bank. My boss is an ex social worker and the girl next to me is doing 2 weeks voluntary work in Asia next month. And everyone else I know are entirely normal, decent people.

What i do not understand is why so called intellectuals on the left dont seem to feel the need to define any terms.

Banker, poor, rich etc - what do they mean? how can you discuss it properly if everyone has their own interpretations??

JorisLuyendijk replies:

Joris Luyendijk banking blog Photograph: Guardian

Agamemnon, point well taken. Yes, you can only discuss properly when you've got your vocabulary sorted out. So how to get from the present muddle to that point? The idea here is start at where most people are, ie talking about 'banks' and then tell a story why such that category is too general. In script writing this is called 'showing, not telling'. Would be great to hear more from you. Joris