Financialisation, financial chains and uneven geographical development: Towards a research agenda

Abstract

This paper examines a critical relationship between finance and uneven geographical development, using Europe as a point of reference. It argues that the existing economic geography literature fails to fully address the implications of financialisation for uneven geographical development. In particular, and despite recent renewed interest in geographies of finance, there does not seem to be a coherent theory of debt and its spatialities. The paper argues that the lack of a coherent theoretical framework on spatialities of credit–debt is a major shortcoming and highlights the need for a geographically-informed view of financialisation and its implications for uneven development. As a way forward, the paper proposes a new approach based on the concept of ‘financial chains’ understood both as channels of value transfer and as social relations that shape socio-economic processes over space and time.