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Call for Papers—Association of American Geographers Meetings, San Francisco, March 29-April 2, 2016 Speculation, Path Dependency, and Financialized Futures Organizers: Rachel Weber, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs Chris Muellerleile, University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education Almost a century ago John Maynard Keynes introduced a distinction between the conventional workings of capitalism, which he called “enterprise,” and behaviors that tried to anticipate and outwit short-term price movements, which he called “speculation.” We suspect Keynes could not have imagined the extent to which the latter has come to influence the former in contemporary capitalism. The anticipatory gaze—what some have called “expectancy”—has become highly formalized in the financial sector, but also plays an increasingly important role in the workings of other economic sectors. In fact, future oriented processes like modelling, forecasting, and risk management forge an operational path for the financialization of otherwise non-financial processes. In the realm of financial markets, whether trading derivatives, shorting stock, selling carbon credits, or bidding up property values in an untested neighborhood, actors and institutions marketize their future commitments. In other words, they become indebted to the future of the market mechanism itself. At the same time in both the global North and South, cities, states, NGOs, and public and private regulators sink ever more economic, political and social capital into the development of both economically anticipatory subjects and financial infrastructure. Through this, something the IMF has recently termed “financial deepening”, places, societies and economies establish path dependency, meaning that even market failure and financial crisis is more likely to result in system repairs than any sort of fundamental restructuring. On the other hand, the massive accumulation of formalized future commitments also leaves this formal system of speculation vulnerable to shock. We seek papers and participants that are interested in three broad processes. First, how do actors and institutions formalize their relationships to economic (broadly defined) futures? Second, how does this formalized expectancy or anticipation relate to money, financial instruments, and financialization? Third, how do decisions related to economic and financial futures represent “lock in” to capitalist or other political economic structures or modalities, and what are the broader implications for planning at various scales? Please contact Rachel Weber ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and/or Chris Muellerleile ([log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>) as soon as possible (Friday, October 23rd at the latest) with indications of interest and a draft abstract.