Capital market development in Southeast Asia: From speculative crisis to spectacles of financialization

Abstract

The aftermath of the Asian financial crisis of 1997–98 witnessed a significant transformation of the financial systems of the Southeast Asia region. It saw the ascendance of capital markets in financial systems that had traditionally relied on bank loans and other sorts of so‐called relationship finance. This emergence of capital markets was by design rather than the spontaneous and natural result of their evolving market orders as policymakers shifted from planning for outcomes to planning for uncertainty. A financialized version of capital market development, conceptualized here as situated knowledge practice, has manifested itself in increasingly spectacular financial designs. The article explores two sites of the circulation of new financial knowledge: the dramatic performances of financial knowledge at (Islamic) capital market conferences and the new urban designs where financial knowledge is put to work. The analysis is informed by observations from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore.