Development geography II: Financialization

Abstract

Financialization is now a key area of research within Geography. Development geographers have made significant (although arguably under-recognized) contributions, notably in relation to household and ‘everyday’ financialization, as well as recent work on the financialization of nature, land, infrastructure, health and energy in the Global South. In this progress report, I argue that donors are currently seeking to accelerate and deepen financialization in the name of ‘development’. Foreign aid is being used to de-risk investment, ‘escort’ capital to ‘frontier’ markets, and carry out the mundane work of transforming objects into assets available to speculative capital flows. Financialization both permeates and goes beyond the more commonly referenced private sector-led development. Donors are pursuing these strategies and programmes with little or no reference to the threats posed by greater financialization.