*Apologies for cross-posting*
Call for Papers: Issue on ‘Geography of Finance and Real Estate’ |
articulo – Journal for Urban Research, issue 09/2012 (http://articulo.revues.org/1754)
‘City building’ is a versatile process, fuelled by the liberalisation of financial markets,
accelerated by the increasing transparency of local property markets, and stimulated by the tight relations between city planners and (inter-)national investors. As the built environment decides on a city’s economic prospect and determines future planning
and development opportunities, the consequences of city building processes are multifaceted. Financial processes of urban (re)development, for example, are discussed as cutting
edge of a larger process of uneven development, which is rooted in the structure of the capitalist mode of production (Smith 1982) and fuels
controversial debates on the ownership of the city (e.g., Sassen 2000; Lizieri and Kutsch 2006; Lefebvre 1991 [1974]).
In the aftermath of the recent crashes of interwoven financial and real estate markets, best
observed in countries like the US, Spain, or the UK, it became clear that most debates on financial issues of real estate markets have so far rather led a shadowy existence, especially in the discipline of geography. Questions like “Who owns the city?” or
“How do specific property regimes determine and/or limit trajectories of cities?” provoke different answers depending on who asks them where and when. Even to whom these questions are directed is important as property rights of houses or real estate assets
are shared, transformed and mobilized in modern financial markets.
The Call for Papers at hand aims to attract further attention to the complex of financial matters
and the production of the built environment with the intention to locate both more centrally within geography, planning, and economics (cf. Pryke 1994).
We invite innovative conceptual and first empirical full paper contributions, which take up
positions on geographically and factually heterogeneous real estate markets in a wider perception. Paper contributions might, for instants, aim at...
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examining the output of the excessive ‘loan economy’ (due to the liberalisation of the financial markets) and the ongoing financialisation
processes in the real estate sector;
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deepening our understanding of the underlying development paths of interactions between the different actors in financial markets,
the real estate industry, and/or city planning;
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discussing the ‘new’ flexibility of city planning and the dynamism of urban property markets, e.g. caused by large-scale projects
and their underlying personnel relationships between politicians and investors, project developers and the owners of construction firms;
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considering the continuing spatial re-orientation of real estate investments due to the appearance of financially powerful (institutional)
actors and the wider impacts on the respective urban economy;
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illuminating resistance and negotiation processes of the civil society concerning ‘urban privatisation’ in general or foreclosure-practices
of banks in times of crisis.
References:
Lefebvre, H. 1991 [1974].
The production of space [Production de l'espace].
Malden: Blackwell.
Lizieri, C. and N. Kutsch. 2006.
Who Owns the City 2006: Office Ownerhsip in the City of London. Reading: University of Reading.
Pryke, M. 1994. Looking back on the space of a boom: (re)developing spatial matrices in the City of London.
Environment and Planning A 26:235-264.
Sassen, S. 2000. New frontiers facing urban sociology at the Millennium.
British Journal of Sociology 51:143-160.
Smith, N. 1982. Gentrification and Uneven Development.
Economic Geography 58:139-155.
We welcome abstracts of 200-250 words along with the title of your proposed paper and the names/affiliation
of author/s no later than October 14th 2011. Please send inquiries and abstracts to the issue’s editors: Sabine Dörry, CEPS/INSTEAD Luxembourg ([log in to unmask]), or Michael Handke, University of Heidelberg/Germany ([log in to unmask]).
Further proceedings: proposed deadline for the full papers: 27th April 2012 || double blind reviews
and paper revisions: May to July 2012 || final online publication: August/September 2012.
Dr Sabine Dörry
Research Fellow
Department of Geography and Development (GEODE)
Centre for Population, Poverty and Public Policy Studies (CEPS/INSTEAD)
Bâtiment E
3, avenue de la Fonte
L-4364 Esch-sur-Alzette
Luxembourg
(+352) 58.58.55.323