As
part
of
the
Water
Institute's WaterTalks
lecture
series Professor
Kathryn
Furlong will
present:
Water’s
big
infrastructure:
From
debt-led
development
to
financialization
More information
This talk explores economies of water’s big infrastructure, from debt-led development to financialization. Interest in infrastructure financialization has grown with concern about financialization more broadly, coming to dominate discussions on economies of infrastructure. I engage with research that explores what infrastructure financialization entails, its scope, as well as the mathematical infrastructures that support it. Questioning the common presentation of financialization as a complete break with past economies of infrastructure, I bookend the talk with links to – and continuities with – debt-led infrastructure development, which prevailed in the post-war period and remains of great importance in contemporary economies of infrastructure such that the focus of utility governance – and its relationship towards those dependent on it for services – becomes reoriented towards debt management – or “governing by debt”.
Speaker Bio
Kathryn Furlong is an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the Université de Montréal and holds the Canada Research Chair in Water and Urbanization. Her research focusses on political ecologies of infrastructure and urban service provision, particularly water. She recently led a major reform of her department’s graduate programs, which will be launched in September 2020. Her book Leaky Governance: Alternative Service Delivery and the Myth of Water Utility Independence (UBC Press, 2016) focusses on the relationship between neoliberal governance, water supply, and sustainable service delivery in Ontario.
Coffee & Refreshments Served