The talk will be introduced and moderated by Yngve Solli Heiret , Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography.
About the lecture
Banks have taken a backseat since the global financial crisis over a decade ago. Today, our new financial masters are asset managers, like Blackstone and BlackRock. And they don't just own financial assets. The roads we drive on; the pipes that supply our drinking water; energy systems for electricity and heat; hospitals, schools, and even the homes in which many of us live – all now swell asset managers’ bulging investment portfolios. As the owners of more and more of the basic building blocks of everyday life, and especially urban life, asset managers shape the lives of each and every one of us in profound and disturbing ways. This lecture aims to peel back the veil on “asset manager society”, showing that asset managers are unlike traditional owners of housing and other essential infrastructure. Buying and selling these life-supporting assets at a dizzying pace, the crux of their business model is not long-term investment and careful custodianship but making quick profits for themselves and the investors that back them.
About the speaker
Brett Christophers is Professor of Human Geography at the Institute of Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University. His books include The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain (2018), Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It? (2020) and The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet (2024), all published by Verso.