Dear colleagues,

 

Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research at Vrije Universiteit Brussels (Belgium) is hiring a fulltime Postdoctoral Researcher in the context of FinanceEurope, a FWO-sponsored research project themed “Reconstructing the changing financial geography of the European Union (1985-2007) through narratives, numbers, and networks of European financial elites.”

 

The research of the postdoctoral researcher will primarily involve a mapping of the Europeanization of banking networks in addition to in-depth case studies of a panel of European banks in terms of their geographical strategies during the study period. The successful candidate will work in close synergy with a PhD researcher, who is focusing on the elite network aspects of the project.

 

The candidate should have a strong track record in studying finance through mixed-method approaches. Knowledge of financial geography is elementary, but the position is open to candidates from a diverse disciplinary background (e.g. anthropology, economics, geography, history, sociology). Knowledge of Dutch or French is not a requirement, but is considered an asset. The position primarily involves research, but the candidate is also expected to engage in a modest amount of teaching in the MSc Geography and MSc Urban Studies programs.

 

Preferred starting date is 1 October 2018. We offer a full-time contract for a period of 20 to 24 months. More info on Cosmopolis here http://www.cosmopolis.be/ and on Vrije Universiteit Brussels here http://www.vub.ac.be/. Cosmopolis is also a member organization of FinGeo: The Global Network on Financial Geography, more info here http://www.fingeo.net/.

 

Potential candidates are asked to send a full academic CV and a 2-page motivation letter to Prof. David Bassens, e-mail [log in to unmask], by 15 August 2018. The same address applies for all queries about the position.

 

Best wishes,

David

 

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Reconstructing the changing financial geography of the European Union (1985-2007) through narratives, numbers, and networks of European financial elites.

 

At a time when crisis-ridden Europe is devoured by social, political, and economic turmoil, the proposed research project intends to provide a thorough understanding of the financial politics and geographies that led to the financial integration of the European Union before the crisis of 2008. The project will try to explain that integration through the Europe-wide expansion of its primary financial agents (i.e. European banks) and wonders how geographical expansions were enabled by decisions in European policy networks. The main hypothesis is that political and financial elites converged in overlapping “networks” made up by insiders, business economists, academics, consultants, and politicians who utilized “narratives” about the acclaimed benefits of financial Europeanization for all, in spite of factual divergence in the “numbers” that were observable on the ground. The project will study these dynamics in hindsight for the period 1985-2007, by looking at how decisions at European banks were being made and how these dovetailed with the policies that were rolled out across Europe financial space. The main empirical points of entry consist of in-depth case studies of expanding Belgian and Dutch banks and an analysis of elite decision-making networks in Brussels.

 

 

Associate Professor @ Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research

Treasurer @ FinGeo: The Global Network on Financial Geography

Department of Geography
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Building F - Room 4.63
Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels
Belgium

 

t: +32 (0)2 629 33 87

e: [log in to unmask]

w1: http://www.cosmopolis.be/people/david-bassens

w2: http://www.fingeo.net/team_member/david-bassens/