Lost in space

Abstract

The increasing power of the financial industry in today's economies has spatial fundamentals and important spatial consequences. This article examines the relevance of the social studies of finance (SSF), largely inspired by actor network theory (ANT) in this respect. Two critiques are made. First, SSF works are limited to the financial sphere and scarcely consider any connection with the rest of the economy. Second, their conception of space remains embryonic, if not entirely metaphorical. However, to understand and evaluate the effects of the financial industry requires that we take account of its spatial and historical contexts from the outset.

Cuban migrants and the making of Havana’s property market

“…Current trends in the Cuban housing economy offer a unique opportunity to study actually existing "market making" processes and practices in a socialist context where private homeownership was historically predominant, but with restrictions for buying, selling, and investing (Grein, 2015). Our findings therefore also dialogue with the literatures on "market making" and "marketization" in general (Boeckler & Berndt, 2012;Corpataux & Crevoisier, 2016;French et al, 2011;Hall, 2010), on real estate in particular (Hofman & Aalbers, 2019;Searle, 2014;Waldron, 2018;Wijburg & Aalbers, 2017), and on situations of emerging market socialism or (post-)socialism more specifically (Bitterer & Heeg, 2012;Bohle, 2014;Büdenbender & Aalbers, 2019;Büdenbender & Golubchikov, 2017). Our findings also sharpen existing debates on financial globalization, uneven development, and dependency theory in an increasingly connected "world of cities" (Brenner & Schmid, 2014;Robinson, 2016).…”

Commentary: From capital landing to urban anchoring: The negotiated city

“…Drawing on various streams of socio-economic theory, Crosby and Henneberry (2016) highlight, in particular, the investment assessment tools used by financial actors; Sanfelici and Halbert (2016) and Rouanet and Halbert (2016) address discourse within the context of financial actor visions of the city; Ashton et al (2016), Gotham (2016), Fields and Uffer (2016) and Guironnet et al (2016) focus on the contracts and legal formatting required for the construction of financialised urban rent. In other words, while mobilising theories of action and, in particular, the sociology of the financial markets, the authors come out of the ‘trading rooms’ (Corpataux and Crevoisier, 2015). They show how the various intermediary actors – developers, real estate consultants, municipalities, etc.…”