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1. Speculative urbanism and the urban-financial conjuncture: Interrogating the afterlives of the financial crisis

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X211016003  

   Goldman, Michael (April 2021, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space)

   This article proposes an analytical–methodological approach to understand this historical conjuncture of speculative urbanism in which global finance capital plays an increasingly important role in urban transformation. Whereas the scholarship on urban financialization makes sharp distinctions between what occurs in the global North and the South, portraying the process in the South as one of subordination or peripheralization and in the North as mature and stable (although volatile), this article seeks to demonstrate that the North–South divide is less effective as an explanatory power. Instead, it presents an analytical approach that is attuned to the relentless dynamism and inter-scalar hyper-mobility of finance capital working across the postcolonial map—in other words, a relational–conjunctural approach. The article suggests the method of “following the financial strategy” by analyzing urban forms and projects as processes constituted by the nexus of practices in finance and city planning. It looks closely at finance’s use of inter-scalar financial tools (such as arbitrage, interest rate swaps, collateralized debt obligations, and currency hedges) across borders, sectors, infrastructures, and conditions, as mediated by national and international state actors. The value of this analytical–methodological approach will be illustrated through notable financial transactions occurring in and across cities to emphasize their speculative and financial characteristics—specifically highlighting investments traversing cities of Spain, the USA, and India. The focus here is on financial strategies emerging from the detritus of the 2008 global financial crisis and shaped by the expanding discursive-material formation of speculative urbanism. 

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2. Initial coin offerings: Linking technology and financialization

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20954440  

   Zook, Matthew; Grote, Michael_H (October 2020, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space)

   This paper elaborates on the interactions between digital technologies and financial practices and how they contribute to the ongoing process of financialization. We focus on the circumstances of blockchain-based token offerings and their contribution to reshaping existing systems of investment in startups. We show how future clients become investors via the initial coin offering (ICO) process. The paper is based on interviews with blockchain and industry practitioners during 2018 and 2019 and focuses on an in-depth case study of a specific ICO in early 2018. We suggest a framework consisting of catalysts, cracks and voids to analyze the financialization process and to inform theories of how financialization advances through the new spaces afforded by socially constructed technologies upon which entrepreneurs capitalize. With this framework we provide a better understanding of the mechanics behind financialization, particularly the ways in which business processes, and larger social relations such as the role of investors and clients, are reimagined and reworked. 

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3. Landscapes of Rizq: Islam, Masculinity, and Speculative Real Estate in Lahore

   Rahman, Tariq (January 2021, Society for Economic Anthropology Annual Meeting)

   Landscapes of Rizq: Islam, Masculinity, and Speculative Real Estate in Lahore The city of Lahore, Pakistan has expanded by 20% in the past 20 years alone. Lahore’s exponential growth is fueled by a financialized real estate market that facilitates speculative trading of plots of land rather than constructed buildings. At the city’s ever-expanding periphery, real estate developers armed with drones and legal teams scout for cheap land while agricultural landowners collaborate to resist these efforts by refusing to sell or inflating prices. In WhatsApp groups, local and overseas Pakistani investors carefully monitor these events by sharing rumors, leaked documents, Google satellite images, and personal photos and videos in order to make their own assessments about the value of land. In the struggle to keep, buy, and sell land, several different approaches to placemaking collide—land as generational wealth; land as expansion of the modern city; land as entry to the middle class; and land as return to the homeland. Meanwhile, the financialization of land has taken a devastating toll on urban development, leading to the displacement of tenant farmers, unprecedented deforestation, and Lahore becoming the second most polluted city in the world. At the same time, speculative real estate in Lahore exists against the backdrop of Pakistan’s longstanding political and economic instability, which includes a largely unregulated economy, dramatic policy changes imposed by international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Action Task Force, and unpredictable currency fluctuations during the 2020 pandemic. While real estate is the most popular form of financial activity in Lahore, it is also extraordinarily risky. Developers routinely sell land before they possess it even though acquisition attempts often fail and government planning permissions to convert agricultural land into urban land are not always received. Local and overseas Pakistanis regularly invest in land despite the long history of fraud and turmoil in the market. Based on 24 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lahore with developers, investors and landowners, this paper analyzes how these actors navigate risk through the concept of rizq, or the Islamic belief that despite one’s best efforts, their material possessions are ultimately provided by God. I show how rizq and real estate constitute dual economies between which all debts are eventually settled. Attending to the role of masculinity in this male-dominated market, I also examine how rizq entangles with financialization through the male archetypes of the patron, the patriarch, and the adventurer. At the intersection of Islam, masculinity, and speculative real estate, I argue that rizq enables an audacious mode of speculation that has devastated the landscape of Lahore. This paper presentation will be pre-recorded and read over drone footage collected during fieldwork that highlights the speculative landscape of Lahore. 

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4. Redesigning On-Line Food Consumption to Enhance Racial and Social Inclusion Through Generative Production Networks

   Johnson, Keesa V.; Eglash, Ron (June 2021, New design ideas)

   Bennett, Audrey; Eglash, Ron (Ed.)

   The food system in the US has supported growing dominance of industrial agriculture, corporate distribution chains, and other means by which power is exerted at the expense of environmental sustainability, citizen health and wealth inequality. Economic impacts have been most damaging to low resourced and racialized communities. Online purchasing creates new opportunities--particularly in the context of the covid epidemic--but barriers may arise that are also along race and class divisions. This paper examines an initial data set for two Black led collaborative Food System projects (two urban farms and a mobile farmers market initiative), all of which are primarily staffed by African American leadership and serve a diverse set of community members with Black consumers being of the majority. While issues such as government benefit payments constitute formal economic barriers, other challenges are better illuminated through the lens of the extraction of value: the loss of community connections and increased dependency on modes of production that do not return value to the community. We define “generative production networks” as those which maximize unalienated value return rather than value extraction. We utilize this framework to examine alternative online systems to overcome these barriers. 

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5. Toward Platform Capitalism in Agrobiodiversity? Examining the Potential Challenges of E‐Commerce Integration in Agrobiodiversity Apps

   https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.70006  

   Zárate_Vásquez, Julio_Sebastián; Delborne, Jason_A (June 2025, Economic Anthropology)

   ABSTRACT In recent years, citizen‐driven initiatives have significantly transformed agrobiodiversity monitoring, exemplified by platforms like Wiki Papa and VarScout, which support Andean potato conservation in Peru. Wiki Papa serves as a curated repository documenting local potato varieties, while VarScout enables the collection of on‐the‐ground potato data from farming fields and Andean households. These platforms integrate citizen science with conservation. Recently, the potential inclusion of e‐commerce features in Wiki Papa aims to connect small‐scale potato farmers directly with urban consumers, promoting economic growth. However, this integration highlights a paradox: While commercialization can incentivize potato farmers to conserve many local potato varieties, it also introduces challenges, such as market‐driven standardization and increased production costs. This study explores the complex interplay between potato commercialization and agrobiodiversity conservation through qualitative research, including interviews and participant observation with key stakeholders. Findings reveal that integrating e‐commerce features into digital platforms presents logistical and sociotechnical challenges but also distracts users from discussing data governance issues. Insights from app developers, farmers, and conservationists illuminate the tensions between economic interests and preservation of food heritage. By examining the potential integration of e‐commerce into Wiki Papa, this study contributes to discussions on the role of platform science in conservation and niche markets. 

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