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Dalia GebrialView profile

Lecturer

• Racial Capitalism
• Political Economy
• Digital Economies
• +7 more

Dalia Gebrial is a Lecturer in Geography and Social Justice at King's College London, based in the Department of Geography within the School of Global Affairs. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and focuses on decolonial economic geography, examining racial capitalism's intersections with empire, labour, digital economies, and globalisation. Her work critiques how capitalism persists through racialized social divisions of labour across diverse sites like workplaces, homes, and prisons. Her current research applies these frameworks to platform economies, particularly Uber in London, analyzing racialized geographies of labor. She teaches courses on financialization, urban field studies, research design, and geography in practice. Active in media commentary, she contributes to outlets like The Guardian and BBC, and advises anti-racist and workers' rights initiatives. Her research group, Urban Futures, explores conceptual and methodological approaches to understanding urban dynamics. Notable publications include Racial Platform Capitalism: Empire, Migration and the Making of Uber in London (2024) and works on the Green New Deal, decolonizing universities, and postcolonial policies. Her writing spans policy analysis, decolonial pedagogy, and critiques of 'green colonialism.' Research Interests: Racial Capitalism, Platform Economies, Anti-Racism, Decolonial Theory, Labour Exploitation Teaching: Geographies of Financialisation, Research Design, Urban Studies Public Engagement: Media commentary, anti-racist organizing

Keith BreckenridgeView profile

Professor

• Cultural and Economic History of South Africa
• Biometric Identification Systems
• Financialisation Technologies in Africa
• +3 more

Keith Breckenridge is a Professor and Deputy Director at WiSER , University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He specializes in the cultural/economic history of South Africa, biometric identification systems, and financialisation technologies across Africa. Biometric State (Cambridge, 2014) Co-editor of Registration and Recognition (OUP, 2012) Key research themes: Historical entanglement of state surveillance with biometric capitalism, digitization of African economies, and critical analysis of civil registration systems. His work examines Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa where commercial banks are building centralized biometric databases for credit scoring. Recent publications analyze biometric anti-bank technologies, silicosis surveillance in mining history, and the politics of parallel digital archives. Projects: Biometric Capitalism (ongoing) and Curriculum Development (completed) in Science & Technology Studies.

Julie LawsonView profile

Adjunct Professor

• Urban Policy
• Housing Systems
• Investment Circuits
• +6 more

Adjunct Professor Julie Lawson holds positions at RMIT University's Centre for Urban Research (Melbourne, Australia) and serves as Honorary Associate Professor. She is also Director of Just Cities (Netherlands) and Senior Housing Expert at NIRAS for the EU Delegation in Ukraine. Her primary affiliation is with RMIT's School of Global, Urban & Social Studies (GUSS) and the Centre for Urban Research. Research interests include urban and land policy, housing systems, investment pathways, urban infrastructure, and financial intermediaries. She focuses on fostering sustainable and inclusive urban development through policy reforms and cross-border collaboration. Key projects include contributions to Ukraine's post-war housing recovery (Lugano Plan, EU Facility Plan) and the establishment of Australia's National Housing Finance Investment Corporation. Collaboration networks span Europe, with active engagement in ENHR working groups on crises, conflict, and recovery. She co-edits Housing Theory and Society and Critical Housing Analysis, and leads courses on urban recovery with TU Delft and UNUN. Technical expertise includes legislative reform, housing policy design, and institutional capacity building in post-conflict regions. Teaching spans urban planning and housing policy at RMIT, Rotterdam's Institute of Housing and Urban Development, and professional training programs in Norway. Multilingual (English, Dutch) and globally mobile, she coordinates cross-cultural research initiatives and podcast series under the #Housing2030 framework.

Andrew BrownView profile

Professor

• Value and growth
• financialisation
• The Euro
• +4 more

Professor Andrew Brown serves as Professor of Economics and Political Economy at Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds, holding this position since 2016 after progressing from Lecturer (2000-2008) to Senior Lecturer (2008-2016). His academic journey began with a Research Assistant role at South Bank University and University of East London (1999-2000). His educational background includes: PhD Economics, University of Middlesex MA Economics, University of Leeds BA (Joint Honours) Economics/Philosophy, University of Leeds Brown's research critically examines value theory, financialisation, Eurozone dynamics, and wellbeing-economics intersections, emphasizing methodological rigor through critical realism and dialectics. His interdisciplinary work bridges economists, engineers, and environmental scientists to address infrastructure and financial system challenges, notably advancing mixed-methods frameworks for complex socioeconomic analysis. He has secured circa £15M in external funding from major bodies including EC, ESRC, and EPSRC: EPSRC: City Infrastructure Engineering Robots project (£4.2M, 2016-2021, Co-I) NERC-ESRC: CVORR Resource Recovery (£1.2M, 2014-2017, Co-I) EPSRC-ESRC: i-BUILD Infrastructure Innovation (£3.5M, 2013-2017, Co-Director) EU FP7: FESSUD Financialisation Study (£8M, 2011-2016, Co-I) Award recognition includes: 2015 Sage Prize for Innovation/Excellence (critical realism paper) Brown advises HM Treasury on infrastructure policy and directs the IMBUES research centre. His advisory roles span the Major Projects Association's Green Book+ group and HM Treasury's Strategic Infrastructure Independencies Group (2014-2015). He co-organized the 2012 British Sociological Association Presidential Event on financial crises and co-founded the Political Economy of Work study group (2009-2016). He teaches the compulsory PhD module 'Nature and Philosophy of Social Science Research' covering research methodology and impact strategies, previously instructing macroeconomics and economic methodology courses at undergraduate levels.

Callum WardView profile

Lecturer

• Urban Studies
• Real Estate Economics
• Political Economy
• +6 more

Dr. Callum Ward is a Lecturer in Valuation and Governance at the Sheffield University Management School (University of Sheffield), affiliated with the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) department. His academic journey includes a PhD in Geography from KU Leuven (Belgium) as a Flemish Research Foundation Fellow, focusing on the political economy of land rent and real estate financing. He held research fellowships at York University (Canada), University College London (Bartlett School of Planning), LSE, and Uppsala University, contributing to projects like the ORA-ERC 'What is Governed in Cities' (WHIG). His research interests center on land governance, asset formation, and urban development through a political economy lens. Key themes include financialisation of land, housing market accountability, and evolving governance structures. He employs corporate research methods to analyze debates in urban planning and real estate economics. Recent work examines rent extraction in urban contexts, state-market relations, and the geographies of capital accumulation. His publications address issues like the UK's cladding scandal, sovereign wealth fund impacts on real estate markets, and municipalist land value capture strategies. Dr. Ward currently leads research under CRAFiC (Corporate Research and Financial Crime) at the Management School, exploring how assetisation processes shape contemporary urban governance.

Nils PetersView profile

Research Fellow

• Financialisation
• Venture Capital
• Platform Capitalism
• +2 more

Nils Peters is an LSE Fellow in Economic Sociology at the Department of Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Science. His research focuses on how financial systems shape contemporary socio-economic structures, particularly in the digital economy. He holds a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, an MA in International Political Economy from the University of Warwick, and a BSc in Economics from the University of Münster. PhD: Political Economy Research Centre, Goldsmiths, University of London (Thesis: 'Solving the Problem of Abundance: Venture Capital and the Rise of the Platform Economy') MA: International Political Economy, University of Warwick BSc: Economics, University of Münster His key expertise includes financialisation, venture capital dynamics, platform capitalism, and asset economy mechanisms. Peters explores how financial infrastructures enable digital platforms and influence economic structures. His work bridges economic sociology and critical political economy.

Christian KoutnyView profile

Researcher

• Political Economy
• Development Studies
• Financial Economics
• +3 more

Dr Christian Koutny is a Researcher at the Hertfordshire Business School, University of Hertfordshire. His research focuses on Political Economy, Development Studies, and the spatial aspects of finance, including housing markets, infrastructure, and EU policy issues. He holds a PhD in Economics from Kingston University London (2023), specializing in Financialised Capitalism and Housing Markets. Teaching areas include Mathematics, Finance, Econometrics, Macroeconomics, and Public Policy. His work bridges theoretical and empirical analyses, exploring topics like global capitalism's systemic cycles, urban transformation in London, and reforming the European Investment Bank. Recent research outputs include contributions to Capital and Class , Socio-Economic Review , and working papers on hyper-capitalist urban nodes. Collaborations with scholars like Galanis and Weber highlight systemic chaos in global capitalism and urban financial dynamics. No scientific awards are explicitly listed, but his research addresses pressing policy questions in EU investment and financial ecologies.

Jennifer RobinsonView profile

Professor

• Human Geography
• Urban and Regional Planning
• Urban Policy
• +5 more

Professor Jennifer Robinson holds the Chair of Human Geography at the Department of Geography, University College London (UCL) . Her work bridges postcolonial critiques with global urban studies, focusing on transnational urban governance in African cities. She leads the ERC-funded Making Africa Urban project, collaborating with institutions in Ghana, South Africa, and Malawi. Her academic journey began with a BA (Hons) and MA at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, followed by a PhD at the University of Cambridge, where her thesis explored apartheid-era urban policies in Port Elizabeth. Robinson’s research redefines urban studies through Comparative urbanism tactics Postcolonial and transcalar governance frameworks Infrastructure financialisation and debt urbanisation Policy mobilities in sovereign, developmental, and private circuits She advocates for methodological innovation to center African cities in global urban theory. Recent publications highlight trends in Transnational infrastructure projects in Accra, Dar es Salaam, and Lilongwe Post-apartheid urban transformation in Johannesburg Neoliberal urban governance in London Her work has been cited extensively, reflecting its impact on urban policy discourse. Scientific recognition includes Fellow of the British Academy (2024) Member of Academia Europaea (2021) Fellow of the Society of South African Geographers (2016) Robinson supervises research degrees and collaborates with teams across four continents, merging academic rigor with community engagement.

• Urban Geography
• Infrastructure
• Urbanisation
• +4 more

Professor Jonathan Silver is a faculty member at the Urban Institute , part of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield . He joined in November 2016 and specializes in urban geography, focusing on infrastructure, urbanisation, financialisation, and everyday life in global cities. His work includes a ERC-funded project, GlobalCORRIDOR, examining infrastructure corridors and inequality. Education: BA Hons (University of Leeds), MA (University of Manchester), PhD (Durham University) Current Research: Postcolonial urban theory, financialisation of cities, infrastructure planning Grants: ERC Starting Grant (GlobalCORRIDOR), ESRC funding (Centripetal City) Contact: 219 Portobello, Sheffield S1 4DP | j.silver@sheffield.ac.uk | @invisiblemapper

Nicholas FrankView profile

Research Fellow

• Global Trade Policy
• International Political Economy
• Computational Social Science
• +3 more

Nicholas Frank is a Laureate Research Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU), based in the School of Regulation & Global Governance. Previously, he served as an Associate Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at ANU. His research focuses on the political economy of trade and investment governance, employing computational methods such as inferential network analysis and text-as-data techniques. Education: PhD in Regulation and Global Governance (ANU) MSc in International Political Economy (London School of Economics) Bachelor of Commerce (PPE, University of Cape Town) Research Interests: Global trade policy, multinational enterprises, computational social science (network analysis, NLP), and health equity. His work bridges formal theory, econometrics, and policy analysis to address systemic inequities in trade and climate governance. Collaborations and Affiliations: Consultant for the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Previous roles at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) Key Research Trends: Recent articles emphasize leveraging machine learning, text analysis, and network approaches to study bilateral investment treaties, health equity in climate policies, and the political economy of growth models. His work often intersects with global health and planetary health frameworks. Advising and Grants: Registered to supervise research students. His projects include the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, focusing on interdisciplinary solutions to systemic inequities. Labs/Teams: Active member of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, a cross-disciplinary initiative addressing global governance challenges.

Graham ThrowerView profile

Research Professor

• Economic Geography
• Inclusive Growth
• Public Sector Governance
• +5 more

Graham Thrower is the Head of the Institute for Economic and Social Inclusion (IESI) at the University of Sunderland, leading interdisciplinary research on inclusive learning, living, work, and health outcomes for excluded communities. He holds a PhD in Economic Geography from Newcastle University and has over 30 years of experience in strategic leadership across public, private, and third sectors, including roles at Citigroup, ONE North East, and Urban Foresight. His research focuses on socio-economic challenges, inclusive growth, and the impact of spatial development, with a particular emphasis on co-designed solutions for marginalized groups. His academic work examines the financialization of infrastructure and its societal implications, while his policy advisory roles include projects for national governments, international bodies, and local councils. Notable contributions include strategies for just transitions, net-zero pathways, and climate-resilient urban planning. He has authored influential publications such as Financialising City Statecraft and Infrastructure (2019) and led initiatives like the Walsall Economic Strategy (2022) and West Kildare Just Transition Plan (2022). Thrower’s research bridges theory and practice, addressing systemic inequalities through participatory methods. His advisory work spans sectors including green construction, screen industries, and social housing, emphasizing community agency in socio-economic development.

Tanja SchneiderView profile

Associate Professor

• Science and Technology Studies (STS)
• Economic Sociology
• Digital Health
• +7 more

Tanja Schneider is an Associate Professor and Head of the Human-Centred Innovation Section at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) , with a research focus on the intersection of Science and Technology Studies (STS) and economic sociology. She also holds an affiliation as a Research Affiliate at the University of Oxford within the Department of Anthropology. PhD from the University of Sydney Her research explores transformations in agency, accountability, and autonomy in digital societies, spanning topics like neuromarketing, digital food activism, dietary monitoring technologies, and the financialisation of FoodTech innovations. She has led interdisciplinary projects such as FoodCoach (2020-2024) and currently develops her Venture Food book project. Tanja’s publications address digital health, governance, and the societal implications of FoodTech. She has co-edited special issues in journals like the Journal of Cultural Economy and BioSocieties , and her work appears in outlets including Science, Technology & Human Values and Journal of Consumer Culture . Her research methodologies emphasize ethnography and interdisciplinary collaboration across computer science, STS, and information studies. Principal Investigator, FoodCoach (Swiss National Science Foundation) Co-founder, Oxford Food Governance Group She collaborates with institutions in Switzerland (ETH Zürich, University of St. Gallen), Germany (University of Passau), and South Korea, examining how digital tools reshape food activism and dietary interventions.

Jeff PowellView profile

Associate Professor

• Development Economics
• Monetary Economics
• Financialisation
• +3 more

Jeff Powell serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of International Business & Economics at the University of Greenwich, where he is also affiliated with the Greenwich Political Economy Research Centre (GPERC). As a founding member of Reteaching Economics, he actively contributes to reforming economics education through pluralist pedagogical approaches. His research centers on critical intersections of development economics, monetary systems, and financialisation, with particular focus on the subordination of emerging economies within global financial structures. Powell examines historical transformations in capitalist development, the political economy of crises, and alternative approaches to economic governance, consistently adopting a critical perspective that challenges mainstream economic narratives. Analysis of Powell's 15 publications reveals a sustained research trajectory examining financialised capitalism's impact on development trajectories, with recent work emphasizing structural hierarchies in the international monetary system. His scholarship demonstrates strong thematic coherence across temporal periods, evolving from eurozone crisis analyses (2010-2011) to contemporary investigations of financial subordination in emerging economies (2021-2023). Powell maintains active international research collaborations with institutions including the University of Cambridge and SOAS University of London, reflecting his embeddedness in global critical political economy networks. His work through Reteaching Economics demonstrates parallel commitment to transforming economics pedagogy alongside his scholarly research on financial and developmental structures.