Bassens, David, a human geographer and social & cultural anthropologist, is Assistant Professor of Economic Geography at the Geography Department of Vrije Universiteit Brussels where he acts as co-director of Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research. He doubles as Associate Director of Financialization of the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) research network and is Executive Committee member and Treasurer of FINGEO, the Global Financial Geography network. David is editor of the new journal Finance and Space and member of the editorial board of Geoforum.
David Bassens’ PhD research studied processes of world-city formation through the lens of the geographies of Islamic finance. His current work focuses on understanding processes of world-city-formation under conditions of financialized globalization, with an empirical focus on continental Europe and emerging markets. His work has been published in leading journals in the field of human geography. Read more about David's research here.
Wójcik, Dariusz is a Professor of Economic Geography at Oxford University, the incoming Professor of Financial Geography at the National University of Singapore, and Visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University. His research spans geography, urban studies, economics, and political economy. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Finance & Space, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and Fellow of the Regional Studies Association.
Lai, Karen is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Durham University (UK). Her research interests include geographies of money and finance, market formation, service sectors, global city networks and financial centre development. Her recent project examines everyday financialisation through the knowledge networks of financial advisors and consumers. She is current working on two projects regarding the global financial networks of investment banks and law firms, and how FinTech could be reshaping the roles of financial centres. She is on the Executive Committee of the Economic Geography Research Group of the Royal Geographical Society (with Institute of British Geographers), and journal editorial board member of Geoforum and Geography Compass (Economic section).
Pataccini, Leonardo is a Research fellow in the ERC project “GEOFIN” at Trinity College Dublin, and a researcher at the University of Latvia. He completed his PhD in Social Sciences at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The topic chosen for his thesis was the role of financial markets in the transition of the former centrally planned economies. To do this, he completed one-year research stay at the University of Latvia. After defending his thesis, he continued his career as a postdoctoral researcher at the Johan Skytte Institute for Political Studies at the University of Tartu, Estonia. His main research interests are economic and financial geography, international political economy, and post-socialist transitions in Central and Eastern Europe.
Hysaj, Yllka has finished her PhD at the University of Bristol, Management School. Her PhD focuses on Global Talent Mobility in the FinTech sector. She is currently a teacher of International Management at Bristol Uni. She holds a master’s in management and BA in Finance from the University of Sheffield (International Faculty in Thessaloniki). Her research and interests include platform businesses, FinTech, human geography, global talent, future of work, AI.
Affonso, Claudia is an architect and urbanist since 2000 (Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, Brazil). She holds a dual PhD degree (2021) from the University of Oporto and University of Coimbra, Portugal, in Urbanism and Spatial Planning. In 2020 and 2021, she worked as an invited assistant at the Engineering Faculty of University of Oporto and from 2018 to 2021 was a member of CITTA research centre at the same institution. Motivated by her professional background of over 15 years in architecture and urbanism in the private sector, her research is committed to link practice and theory. The topic chosen for her thesis was the role of urban development instruments in contexts of increasing financialization. Currently, she is an independent researcher. Her main research interests are urban planning and economics, the role of both planning and financial investors in shaping urban built space, and financial geography.
Sohns, Franziska is an Associate Professor in Economic Geography at the School of Economics, Finance, and Law at Anglia Ruskin University, where she is also a member of the Centre of Inclusive Societies and Economies.
Franziska’s research interests are multifaceted, crossing the boarders of financial, behavioural, entrepreneurial, evolutionary, and political geography. Currently, she works on research projects focusing on corruptive behaviour, financial inclusion, social entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial resilience. To date, Franziska has published 12 academic journal articles. Moreover, she represents the journal Finance & Space at the RSA Journals Committee and has been elected as one of FinGeo’s External Relation Officers.
In 2018, she held an honorary research associate position at the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University, conducting research on the effect of Brexit on UK’s FinTech industry. In 2017, Franziska completed her PhD in Economic Geography at the University of Cologne, analysing micro entrepreneurship in Vietnam.
Migozzi, Julien is an Urban Studies Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Geography and the Environment, Oxford University. As an economic and urban geographer, his research interests lie at the intersection of financial geography, urban studies, economic sociology and computational social sciences. His ongoing research on real estate platforms explores how digital technologies transform the real estate and finance industries, reshape urban housing markets, and renew segregation and inequalities, focusing on South Africa. His work involves mixed methods that combine geocomputation with in-depth fieldwork. Prior to joining the University of Oxford, he was a Lecturer at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.
Tan, Gordon is a geographer by training, interested in studying the impact of technological changes on urban financial centers, as well as how technology shapes the nature of financial work in terms of human capital (skills) requirements. He is also keen to explore the influence of financial technology (FinTech) platforms on the increased financialization of society. Gordon's upcoming project will investigate the use of financial technology (fintech) among millennials and Gen-Z financial consumers and how such usage has influenced their financial habits. He is also exploring the role of the emerging cryptocurrency/decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape in reproducing economic inequalities and in the further financialization of human subjects.
Horton, Amy is a lecturer in economic geography at University College London. She is interested in connections between finance, labour and care. Her research has examined the financialisation of social infrastructures of care and urban development, particularly nursing homes and housing in the UK. Recently, she co-led a project on the financial impacts of Covid-19 on UK care homes. Solutions to problem debt are explored in her co-edited book, Financing Prosperity by Dealing with Debt, which is free to access digitally from UCL Press.
Ioannou, Stefanos is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at Oxford Brookes University. His main research interests are macroeconomics, finance, and economic geography. He completed his PhD in Economics at University of Leeds in 2016. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed academic journals, including amongst others, Economic Geography; Regional Studies; Urban Studies; and Review of Political Economy. At Oxford Brookes he teaches a number of modules, covering finance and development, international trade, and economic policy. Previously, he has worked as post-doctoral researcher at University of Oxford, and as lecturer in economics at University College Cork (UCC).