'The state and the financialisation of the city' presented by Michael Byrne, NIRSA and Dept of Sociology.
This paper contributes to an understanding of how financial crises are resolved and the specific urban dimensions thereof. It does so by focusing on Asset Management Companies (AMCs), or ‘bad banks’, which are established by governments to acquire and manage toxic assets, often linked to real estate, in the wake of systemic banking crises (e.g. Ireland's NAMA). Despite the fact that AMCs are a very significant financial institution with clear urban implications (the two largest holders of real estate assets in Europe are currently AMCs), they have received surprisingly little attention.
The article argues that AMCs have three distinctly urban dimensions. Firstly they continue and enhance the extraction of value from urban space. Secondly, they act as ‘market makers’ by restoring the ‘liquidity’ of financialized real estate. Thirdly they contribute to the globalization of real estate by intensifying the circuits linking local real estate with global pools of capital. Drawing on this analysis, the article also theorizes AMCs as what Moreno (2014) conceptualizes as ‘apparatuses of financial accumulation’ which, significantly, reveal the systematic inter-dependence of financialization and urban space.
Light lunch provided. Please let us know in advance if you are coming sociology.department@mu.ie