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Accepted Paper:
Speculations on Infrastructure: the longue duree of financialisation on the Indian Railways
Laura Bear
(London School of Economics and Political Science)
Paper short abstract:
This paper takes the long view on contemporary global processes of financial accumulation from the Indian railways. It traces the connections between the railway guarantee of the 1840s and current investment strategies shaped by the World Bank. Overall it argues for an analysis of speculation as a technology of imagination that sets lose contradictory conflicts in time --particularly in relation to fixed capital. And crucially for a critical engagement with the term infrastructure which was first given currency by World Bank initiatives to turn circulatory systems into an asset class.
Paper long abstract:
This paper takes the long view on contemporary global processes of financial accumulation from the Indian railways. It traces the connections between the railway guarantee of the 1840s and current investment strategies shaped by the World Bank. Overall it argues for an analysis of speculation as a technology of imagination that sets lose contradictory conflicts in time --particularly in relation to fixed capital. And crucially for a critical engagement with the term infrastructure which was first given currency by World Bank initiatives to turn circulatory systems into an asset class.
The times of infrastructure
Session 1