A commentary on the implications of the financial crisis has been published in an unusually structured multi-authored piece in the Journal of Economic Geography.  It is part of a theme issue on financial geographies, the origins of which was a session organized by Ewald Engelen and James Faulconbridge at the Boston meeting of the Association of American Geographers in 2008.  The paper has four individually authored sections that have been knitted together in the order of the authors (which is why the word ‘I’ appears in what looks to be a co-authored paper). The full reference is below, and a pre-publication version of the paper can be accessed here.

Roger Lee, Gordon L. Clark, Jane Pollard, and Andrew Leyshon (2009)  The remit of financial geography—before and after the crisis
Journal of Economic Geography, 9, 723-747

This is the final submitted version of a chapter which focuses on the changing geography of financial services employment, focusing on the UK’s leading financial centres.  It was written with Shaun French (Nottingham) and Karen Lai (UBC), and is coming out in a book edited by Neil Coe and Andrew Jones:  The Economic Geography of the UK (SAGE).

The chapter can be downloaded by clicking on this link: Banking on Financial Services_French Lai and Leyshon.

The publication of my paper on the declining fortunes of the recording studio sector (Leyshon A, 2009, “The Software Slump?: digital music, the democratisation of technology, and the decline of the recording studio sector within the musical economy” Environment and Planning A 41(6) 1309 – 1331) led to another press release and a podcast.

This press release generated quite a bit of media interest, not least in that it gave me the opportunity to mention the high profile studio closures that have occurred since undertaking the research as a result of the problems facing studios identified in the paper. It included a feature in the Sunday Express and an article due to be published at some point in the Independent on Sunday.  But what was surprising was just how widely this story ran across a range of different media outlets as a result of one press release, which shows effectiveness of the UoN communications department, the power of the Internet, aggregator software and just how hungry media is for stories with perceived wider public interest (see list below).  Anything with a bit of doom and gloom I suppose … It has also made the Royal Geographical Society web page, which partly makes up for me missing the Annual Conference this year.

I was also called for another appearance on the Andy Whittaker Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Nottingham, although I didn’t feel the interview was a great success.  A previous item overran, which meant I only got a couple of questions before the 8.00 am news, and I was unable to respond with any authority to AW’s anecdote about a recent hit record which, apparently, had been part-recorded in a Nottingham toilet (er … no, not surprisingly,  I didn’t know about this).  I think next time I shall also avoid turning up in cycling garb on my way to work as I suspect being dressed in brightly coloured lyrca made it difficult for the host to take me all that seriously.

The interview with Andrew Burden went much better, and has been released as a University of Nottingham Podcast. It can be accessed by clicking here: http://communications.nottingham.ac.uk/podcasts.html.

Update: 25.9.09: An interview I did for BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours on the subject was broadcast today in a feature on the closure of recording studios and can be accessed via the Listen Again feature: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qps9

Media coverage

‘We all live in a Robbie Fowler house’: The geographies of the buy to let market in the UK, by Andrew Leyshon and Shaun French.

This is the final, revised version of a paper that is to be published in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. It is based on research funded by the Financial Services Research Forum.

The paper can be accessed here.

You can listen to me discussing the UK buy to let market with Andrew Burden in the latest University of Nottingham podcast.  It is based on research undertaken with my colleague Dr Shaun French and funded by the Financial Services Research Forum.  The research will shortly be published as an end of award  report for the Forum and as a paper – ‘We all live in a Robbie Fowler house’: the geographies of the buy to let market in the UK – in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations in the summer of 2009 (see post above).  The podcast can be accessed by clicking here.

You can also download a recording of me giving a much earlier version of the paper at a workshop on The Political Economy of the Sub-prime Crisis, held at the University of Warwick in September 2008, via iTunes.   To access the file, go to the iTunes Store and enter ‘Buy-to-Let, Financialization and the Geographies of Risk’ in the search dialogue box in the top right hand corner.  The download is free of charge.  (This search should also enable you to click through to recordings of all the academic papers presented at this workshop).

You can also, for a limited time only, also catch an interview I did on the research with BBC Radio Nottingham, which is available on the BBC iPlayer. Click here, select 11/05/09 and then move forward to 2:41:40 (I’m sandwiched between an item on the availability of hand washing gels in hospitals and the best places for men to meet women … )

This is the final revised version of a paper written with Shaun French and Nigel Thrift which has been accepted by the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society and is due to be published later in 2009.  This is the version of the paper presented at the Financialization, Space and Place Workshop, held in London on 23rd April 2009.

To access the paper, click here.

I was very pleased to hear that Karen Lai has been awarded the 2009 RGS Economic Geography Research Group prize for best PhD in the sub-discipline. Her thesis, “Approaches to ‘Markets’: The Development of Shanghai as an International Financial Centre”, was undertaken here in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham.  I co-supervised her doctoral research with Shaun French. In 2008, Karen was awarded a prestigious Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada. Following that, Karen will be taking up a position in the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore.

The School of Geography at the University of Nottingham is offering four new Research Masters from September 2009: Masters of Research (both MRes and MRes Sc), an MA by Research and an MSc by Research.

These courses are suitable for students who wish to focus primarily on undertaking a research-based Masters level qualification, with the option of taking up to 60 credits (a third of the degree) through taught modules. All students will be allocated two supervisors from the academic staff of the School of Geography, appropriate to research interests.  Meetings between students and supervisors will take place on a regular basis to provide advice and guidance and ensure that students are are fully connected to the research community in the School of Geography. These degrees offer the opportunity to experience what it is like to do a full PhD degree, but without the requirement to undertake three years of study.

Further details and application forms are available here or from Jenny Ashmore, Postgraduate Research Administrator, School of Geography, The University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Tel: 0115 951 5575. Email: jenny.ashmore@Nottingham.ac.uk. Potential applicants should give an indication of their area of research interest and include a brief research proposal with their application.

“Financial exclusion and the geography of bank and building society closure in Britain”, Andrew Leyshon, Shaun French and Paola Signoretta.

This is the final revised version of a paper that was resubmitted to Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, April 2008, and published in NS Volume 33, No. 4, pp 447-465.

Click here to read paper