Li, Zhenfa;
Wu, Fulong;
Zhang, Fangzhu;
(2025)
Power dynamics and spatiality in the financialisation of the city: financial intermediation in local government bonds in China.
New Political Economy
10.1080/13563467.2025.2506643.
(In press).
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Abstract
This paper investigates financial intermediation in local government bonds (LGBs) in China to understand power dynamics and spatiality. It introduces actor-network theory (ANT) as a framework for enhancing the understanding situated in the financialisation of the city. The paper finds that the Chinese local government, as an asset manager, formed an actor-network to conduct financial intermediation. It wielded more power than the central government and other financial intermediaries. It sometimes fabricated data on infrastructure projects to finance unqualified projects, undermining the central government’s objective of containing financial risk. Under the influence of the local government, other financial intermediaries provided overly optimistic assessments of unqualified projects to impress the local government and preserve their jobs. They also believed the government would not default on LGBs. Power spatiality was shaped by how the local government engaged other financial intermediaries and the geography of financial intermediaries that pre-existed the actor-network. Power and its spatiality were constructed within the actor-network and influenced by the political economy context in which the actor-network was situated.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Power dynamics and spatiality in the financialisation of the city: financial intermediation in local government bonds in China |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13563467.2025.2506643 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2025.2506643 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Financial intermediation; city financialisation; actornetwork theory; the state; China |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208826 |
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