Dr. Martin Sokol

Summary

Western Banks in Eastern Europe: New Geographies of Financialisation Web: https://geofinresearch.eu (ERC Grant Agreement No. 683197)

Funding Agency

ERC

Programme

ERC Consolidator Grant

Summary

Aim : The key aim of the project is to develop a new, geographically-informed, theoretical framework for understanding socio-economic change in post-socialist East-Central Europe in the context of financialisation. Objective: To achieve the above aim, the overarching objective is to fuse two distinctive fields of geographical inquiry: the study of geographies of finance and financialization on the one hand, and geographical studies of post-socialist transformations on the other. These two fields of geographical study have contributed a lot to our understanding of two fundamental processes that have reshaped Europe and the world: (1) financialization (i.e. the process of growing role of finance in the economy and society) in the West, and (2) the transformation of economies and societies following the collapse of communism (state-socialism) in the East. However, to date, these two processes have been largely studied in isolation from each other, in geography and other social sciences alike. The key hypothesis of this project is that these two processes are interrelated in a number of ways and that they are mutually constitutive. The project therefore postulates that it is impossible to fully understand socio-economic change in post-socialist Europe without taking into account the implications of financialization; and, likewise, that it is impossible to fully understand the process of financialization without considering the implications stemming from the collapse of state-socialism. It is therefore expected that the project will have impact on both these fields of inquiry. Indeed, while building a new framework for understanding the post-socialist change is a prime concern, it is expected that the project will also feed into the debates on financialization. In doing so, it will contribute to the search of sustainable financial futures in Europe.

Funding Agency

Enterprise Ireland

Programme

H2020 - Proposal Preparation Support

Project Type

Preparation Support for European Research Council Awards

Person Months

9

Summary

This project will allow FinGeo Network to organise the first ever global seminar series in financial geography.

Funding Agency

Regional Studies Association (RSA)

Programme

RSA Network Grant

Project Type

global seminar series