Financial geography: introduction to the Virtual Issue

Abstract

This introduction traces the development of financial geography through 15 papers selected for a Virtual Issue and previously published in Transactions between 1976 and 2014. The birth of a distinctive literature on the geographies of money and finance can be traced back to the mid 1990s, although Transactions published a few earlier papers dealing with building societies and international lending. Other finance‐related topics of interest include: retail banking, financial exclusion, local exchange trading systems, venture capital investments, emerging markets, Islamic banking, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, financial crises, tourism and mining. While British financial geography dominates the literature in the early years, other countries and international financial flows slowly enter the debate. Although financial geographies are slowly being decentred and rescaled, more work is needed to make the literature more inclusive and geographically diverse. Financial geography built originally on work in economic geography, political economy, urban geography and political geography, but later also includes cultural economy and social studies of finance. Finally, the financial geography literature has established itself within geography and increasingly also within interdisciplinary and pluralistic political and cultural economy.