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Ewa Karwowski
(King's College London)
Dariusz Wojcik
Format:
Workshop
Streams:
Politics and political economy
Sessions:
Wednesday 6 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Financial Centres of the Future – What Role for Africa and Latin America?.
Workshop W10a at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
This workshop explores the current and future role of African and Latin American financial centres in just and sustainable development. Its ultimate aim is to develop a research project on how finance in those regional centres can contribute to addressing the climate crisis and economic inequality.
Long Abstract:
While New York and London have long dominated the global financial architecture (Cassis and Wojcik, 2018), cities from emerging Asia have taken prominent spots among the top ten international financial centres over the past decade (Lai 2012). However, other emerging world regions have not been able to catch up significantly. Latin American and African financial centres, despite being praised as regional ‘gateways’ (Cobbett 2014), have remained relatively insignificant globally. Given the economic challenges that societies across these two continents face – especially extreme inequality and fallout from the climate crisis – the question whether and how regional financial can play a constructive role in supporting just and sustainable socio-economic transformation is increasingly pressing.
Therefore, this workshop has a threefold aim. First, it will map the existing – if rather limited – literature on emerging financial centres in Africa and Latin America, identifying specificities, the nature of links to the dominant global financial centres and their current potential to contribute to or hinder just and sustainable development. Secondly, the workshop tackles the question how these financial centres might have to re-invent themselves to tackle tax evasion (in turn linked to inequality), the overreliance on extractive industries (which is unsustainable in the face of the climate crisis) and other major challenges to just socio-economic transformation. Thirdly, the ultimate aim of the workshop is to develop a research project on the future of African and Latin American financial centres by bringing together scholars across different social science disciplines working on these topics. Thus, the workshop provides an opportunity to identify relevant concepts and methodologies that are useful to tackle the questions raised here and crucially, how they can be utilised or potentially need to be re-invented for the African and Latin American regional contexts.
The workshop invites papers, research notes and other contributions, relevant to the described research agenda. The workshop will be organised as follows. Prior to the workshop, each participant will be asked to record a short video summary (5 minutes) of their contribution, explicitly addressing at least one of the three stated aims of the workshop. These recorded summaries will be the basis for the workshop discussion. Thus, there will be no paper presentations or presentations of contributions during the event. Instead, the workshop will be used for discussion to sketch out the agenda for a future research project and potential joint grant application.
Research note drawing on some recent/forthcoming research to think about the connections between (post) colonial states, extractive modes of development, and the persistence of colonial-era financial centres.
Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:
I'm excited about the format and topic for the workshop, which speaks well to some themes I'm trying to develop in current work about the links between commodity export dependence and the uneven development of financial systems in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly focused on Senegal, Kenya, and Ghana. The persistence of colonial-era financial centres, and the ways those are being repositioned in the present (e.g. through Nairobi's role in the development of fintech) are of particular interest. I like the idea of a forward-looking workshop aiming to develop a wider research agenda, and the connections between finance, extractivism, and climate hinted at in the abstract speak well to my current and planned future work. I've got pieces recently published touching on the historical links between agricultural development and financial centres in Senegal, Ghana, and Kenya, and in progress on the role of the state in reproducing uneven financial geographies in Ghana. The research note would draw on these to pull out some reflections on research directions dealing with the links between the state, extractive development, and financial centres.
Our study aims to identify some of the main differences between Latin American financial centres, highlighting the economic asymmetry between these centres and the roles that each one plays in the international division of labour.
Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:
The theme of the workshop seems extremely important mainly because most studies on international financial centres deal with those located in the countries at the centre of the world system. Although peripheral financial centres are not as relevant when compared to their central counterparts, they are fundamental to their respective geo-economic contexts.
My research explores how investors in Johannesburg, South Africa export practices of economic enclaving to the rest of the African continent through real estate investment. I argue that South African capital is thereby reproducing apartheid style economic practices in the rest of the continent.
Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:
I am at the beginning of my research project on real estate investment and South African finance in Africa. This is a new field for me in as much as my previous research focused more on the political struggles over and experiences of urban redevelopment and less on the question of financial circuits and flows. I am therefore hoping to participate in the workshop in order to gain knowledge from the other participants as well as build stronger relationships with other people working on how financial centres in the "Global South". In particular I am interested in understanding how the kinds of investment practices that these centres engage in might reproduce or depart from the colonial economic patterns in terms of enclaving, extraction, and marginalisation.
Highlights on the location of IFI headquarters, branches, financial flows and activities, especially in the perspective of development objectives. There is a strong significance on the mismatch of the location of the financial centers of IFI and target countries (often LA and African counties).
Why would you like to speak in this workshop?:
The focus on geofinance and on semi-peripheries and on the relationship between geopolitics and funds for international cooperation for development can be considered a fundamental element to understand the financial systems in Latin America and Africa.
In particular this paper analyses the location of IFI headquarters, branches, financial flows and activities especially in regard of development objectives. There is a strong significance on the mismatch of the location of the financial centers of IFIs and target countries (often LA and African countries)
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Dariusz Wojcik
Short Abstract:
This workshop explores the current and future role of African and Latin American financial centres in just and sustainable development. Its ultimate aim is to develop a research project on how finance in those regional centres can contribute to addressing the climate crisis and economic inequality.
Long Abstract:
While New York and London have long dominated the global financial architecture (Cassis and Wojcik, 2018), cities from emerging Asia have taken prominent spots among the top ten international financial centres over the past decade (Lai 2012). However, other emerging world regions have not been able to catch up significantly. Latin American and African financial centres, despite being praised as regional ‘gateways’ (Cobbett 2014), have remained relatively insignificant globally. Given the economic challenges that societies across these two continents face – especially extreme inequality and fallout from the climate crisis – the question whether and how regional financial can play a constructive role in supporting just and sustainable socio-economic transformation is increasingly pressing.
Therefore, this workshop has a threefold aim. First, it will map the existing – if rather limited – literature on emerging financial centres in Africa and Latin America, identifying specificities, the nature of links to the dominant global financial centres and their current potential to contribute to or hinder just and sustainable development. Secondly, the workshop tackles the question how these financial centres might have to re-invent themselves to tackle tax evasion (in turn linked to inequality), the overreliance on extractive industries (which is unsustainable in the face of the climate crisis) and other major challenges to just socio-economic transformation. Thirdly, the ultimate aim of the workshop is to develop a research project on the future of African and Latin American financial centres by bringing together scholars across different social science disciplines working on these topics. Thus, the workshop provides an opportunity to identify relevant concepts and methodologies that are useful to tackle the questions raised here and crucially, how they can be utilised or potentially need to be re-invented for the African and Latin American regional contexts.
The workshop invites papers, research notes and other contributions, relevant to the described research agenda. The workshop will be organised as follows. Prior to the workshop, each participant will be asked to record a short video summary (5 minutes) of their contribution, explicitly addressing at least one of the three stated aims of the workshop. These recorded summaries will be the basis for the workshop discussion. Thus, there will be no paper presentations or presentations of contributions during the event. Instead, the workshop will be used for discussion to sketch out the agenda for a future research project and potential joint grant application.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1 Wednesday 6 July, 2022, -Nick Bernards (University of Warwick)
Fabio Betioli Contel (University of São Paulo)
Claudia Gastrow (University of Johannesburg)
silvia grandi (University of Bologna)