Call for Papers: Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting (AAG) 2012, New York, February 24th – 28th 2012.

 Session Title: Financialization and the city: theories, practices and policies

 Session organizers: Katia Attuyer (Université Paris Est, Latts, UMR 8134) and Ludovic Halbert (Université Paris Est, Latts, UMR 8134)

 The recent financial crisis has generated greater interest on the financialization of urban (re-)development. Global financial institutions tend to own an increasing proportion of residential buildings, commercial buildings and urban infrastructures and impose more and more their logic and instruments to others actors in the property development sector. Despite the existence of a burgeoning literature on the subject, the question of financialization as it relates to the creation and destruction of urban space remains largely under-researched. The aim of this session will be to bring together scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds and to explore connections between financialization and the production of the built environment. We posit that if financialization has gained importance in the making of cities in the last thirty years, its history is much longer (see the 19th urban development of Paris for instance) and, even in the global era, its forms vary according to national and local contexts.  The themes that might be explored within this remit are wide-ranging. Potential questions could involve: how have local property-markets and property industries  reacted to the arrival of international property investors in different geographical contexts? What part of the urban landscape are global investors targeting? What type of city are they contributing to develop (compact city, sprawl, mixed or one-class neighbourhood, ghost estates)? Are the voice and objectives of financial institutions superseding those of local actors (from local authorities to local civil groups)? Are they reinforcing local imbalances by working with a limited range of local actors showing common interest or do they encounter resistance and are forced to incorporate non-financial considerations in their strategies? What has their role been in the definition of a particular regeneration project? Are institutional investors contributing to the creation of sustainable and socially just cities? What policies have rendered the financialization of property markets possible? How useful are different conceptual frameworks in explaining the nature, causes and consequences of financialization within the sphere of urban development?

We anticipate organizing two sessions:

-   - One session in conjunction with Susan Christopherson (Cornell University) and Jane Pollard (Newcastle University, UK) during which we will debate issues relating to the financialization of the city in general.

-      One session will be more particularly centered on issues relating to the production of the built environment.

We welcome both empirical and theoretical papers. We particularly welcome papers that pay attention to local contingencies and path-dependencies by empirically documenting how financialization unfolds in various geographical settings and papers discussing the value of different theoretical frameworks for understanding this process.

Abstracts of 250 words (maximum) should be submitted to Katia Attuyer ([log in to unmask]) and Ludovic Halbert ([log in to unmask]) before the 1st of September. Please remember to include your name, institutional affiliation and contact details on your submission.