Connecting financialization and urbanization: the changing financial ecology of urban infrastructure in the UK

ABSTRACT This paper discusses a conceptual model for critically engaging with the effects of financialization on contemporary cities. The current state of theory on financialization in the urban context focuses foremost on the real estate sector activities, regulatory frameworks and governance structures that enable urban financialization. The paper addresses the calls for a closer examination of the spatial patterns that emerge from these practices. By combining financial ecologies as an analytical tool with infrastructure as a perspective, it provides a conceptual model in order to understand the impacts of financialization on cities. The paper discusses the conceptual model in the context of the introduction of the UK Municipal Bonds Agency. It concludes by outlining some of the spatial effects of the UK’s changing financial ecology of urban infrastructure