Karen P.Y. Lai's Avatar

Karen P.Y. Lai

@karenpylai.bsky.social

professor of economic geography | deputy editor-in-chief @financeandspace.bsky.social | editor of economic geography | money & finance | fintech | data centres | financial centres | Asia

1,012 Followers  |  188 Following  |  50 Posts  |  Joined: 01.11.2023  |  1.9447

Latest posts by karenpylai.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Letter of Support for Professor Farhana Sultana As scholars within and beyond academia, we write in solidarity with academic freedom of expression with our colleague, Dr. Farhana Sultana, an internationally recognized scholar and tenured Full Profe...

As an alumni of Syracuse University, it's appalling that they are capitulating against a right-wing campaign against Professor Farhana Sultana for exercising her first amendment rights. Do consider signing this letter calling on Syracuse University to reinstate her docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

29.10.2025 21:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 130    ๐Ÿ” 79    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 9    ๐Ÿ“Œ 8
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๐Ÿข What lies beneath Chinaโ€™s rapid urban expansion?

๐Ÿ”Ž Ang Liuโ€™s article in Economic Geography reveals how โ€œfake equityโ€ enables developers to mask liabilities, linking urban growth to deeper financial vulnerabilities.

๐Ÿ”— Read more at
doi.org/10.1080/0013...
#EconomicGeography

28.10.2025 15:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Learn about Finance and Space Learn about Finance and Space aims & scope, editorial board, journal metrics and more.

Got sharp insights on the shifting financial landscape?

In addition to original research articles, we accept submissions on a rolling basis for:

๐Ÿ“ Short-form commentaries
๐Ÿ“Š FinVis โ€“ innovative visualizations that bring finance to life

More info here www.tandfonline.com/journals/rfa...

27.06.2025 10:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Building and protecting assets in the spaces of climate risk-making In this paper, I explore two cases of climate financialisation: micro-insurance for climate uncertainty among the global poor, as well as attempts to rescue asset value via investor-state dispute m...

How do financial actors turn climate chaos into durable assets - and what happens when those assets crack under pressure?

Rob Aitkenโ€™s new paper traces the politics of climate risk, from micro-insurance to ISDS.

Out now in Finance and Space: doi.org/10.1080/2833...

04.06.2025 08:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Congratulations, Hyun, Yimin and Sin Yee!

01.06.2025 09:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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We Can Make an Impact. End unnecessary redundancies at Newcastle University

In support of colleagues at Newcastle University who are facing compulsory redundancies. Newcastle Geography have been such a core strength of UK economic geography and internationally for decades. Please consider signing the petition:
chng.it/bhRgKMVtkK

01.06.2025 09:57 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Sarah's hand holding a copy of the co-edited book 'Contemporary Economic Geographies' in paperback. With Jennifer Johns.

Sarah's hand holding a copy of the co-edited book 'Contemporary Economic Geographies' in paperback. With Jennifer Johns.

This arrived the other day! Paperback! Available from 20th of this month and much more affordable at ยฃ28.99. 30 brilliant chapters on contemporary economic geographies, and all written by female and non-binary authors.

02.05.2025 14:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 29    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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The spring 2025 edition of the geography department alumni newsletter is now available to view and download on the geography alumni website. You can also find interviews with alumni and a history of the geography department on the website. www.dur.ac.uk/departments/...

02.04.2025 11:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ“ฃ Finance & Space's Annual Lecture 2024 'The Waterworks of Money' from Martijn van der Linden, Thomas Bollen and Carlijn Kingma, online now:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

25.04.2025 08:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Another doctoral viva completed! ๐ŸŽ‰ A pleasure to examine William Bratton's DPhil (Oxford) thesis on 'The Geographies of Financial Information and Knowledge: A Study of Sell-side Equity Research' with Elena Pierard. Congratulations to Dr Bratton, and cheers to an extra special weekend! ๐Ÿฅ‚

21.03.2025 14:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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climate risk x muni bonds ๐Ÿ”ฅโ›ˆ๏ธ๐Ÿฆ
Mark Davidson and Samuel Cooper examine trends in how municipalities disclose climate risk to prospective bondholders

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

07.03.2025 19:29 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Excellent closing plenary by Emma Mawdsley at #FinGeo Conference, on aid and d/Development under Trump. Difficult questions about aid-industrial complex, shutdown of USAID, rupture but also continuities of criticisms of #Development. Rounding off a fantastic 3 days of financial geography discussion.

28.02.2025 22:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Superb pair of sessions at #FinGeo conference today on teaching financial geography. Very thought provoking and useful to think about how we teach, purposes, different countries and student profiles, materials and activities etc.

28.02.2025 13:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

We like to do things properly ๐Ÿ˜Š

27.02.2025 22:54 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Job done! ๐ŸŽ‰ Official handover to the new #FinGeo leadership at the conference today. It was great hearing the reflections from outgoing leadership and visions from the new leadership team. In other news, we seem to have adopted a new FinGeo mascot โ€” Figgy the Piggy!

27.02.2025 15:52 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Fantastic first day at the 2nd #FinGeo Global Conference in Singapore. Such a delight to see so many old friends and also new faces. Good food, good chats, stimulating sessions. More tomorrow please!

26.02.2025 15:56 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Agreed! Also, how central #centralbanks are to all this - especially to #climate !

Great start to the #FinGeo Global Conference!

26.02.2025 04:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Fantastic opening plenary by Eric Helleiner at 2nd #FinGeo Global Conference on โ€˜Geopolitics & Geoeconomics of Financeโ€™. Delicate work in pulling together different strands of pandemic, geopolitical, climate, and geoeconomic shifts, and how finance is central to this conjectural global polycrisis.

26.02.2025 03:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Great to meet such diverse and engaging group of researchers at the 3rd #FinGeo School this afternoon in Singapore. Stimulating discussions on #publishing for early career researchers and how to generate #ResearchImpacts across various domains. @regstud.bsky.social @financeandspace.bsky.social

25.02.2025 09:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ฌShipping containers and high rise buildings as plane approaches Singapore. This view never gets old ๐Ÿ’— Hope I get over jet lag in time for the 3rd #FinGeo School and 2nd FinGeo Global Conference!

23.02.2025 04:47 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

15.02.2025 13:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 50723    ๐Ÿ” 16504    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 519    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1158
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The gamification of citizenship This paper outlines the โ€˜gamification of citizenshipโ€™ through a focus on digital rewards, participation and volunteering. In recent years, a proliferation of mobile apps have incentivised behaviour...

New OA position paper out on "The gamification of citizenship" - really enjoyed writing this, bringing together #citizenship #digital #rewards #volunteering www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

21.01.2025 09:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Critical Sociology compiled Michael Burawoy's articles and allowed free access.
I hope other journals will do the same.
journals.sagepub.com/page/crs/vir...

14.02.2025 18:35 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 77    ๐Ÿ” 50    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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If you are interested in finding out more about Postgraduate Taught courses @geogdurham.bsky.social come and speak to us! We are running a course presentation and Q&A event in the Department on March 5th:

12.02.2025 11:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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A pleasure to host Vladimรญr Paลพitka for a seminar at @geogdurham.bsky.social Fascinating insights into how the โ€˜Atlas of Financeโ€™ came together, the team, ideas and processes behind the amazing visuals. Co-hosted with Durham Centre for Visual Arts & Culture.

12.02.2025 23:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Such fun to have some of my Chinese PhD students and colleagues over to celebrate lunar new year. Yusheng is a specific Singaporean/Malaysian tradition. Rather pleased with my homemade version. Lo hei! ๆž่ตท๏ผ้ฃŽ็”Ÿๆฐด่ตท๏ผๅฅฝ่ฟ่ฟž่ฟž๏ผ๐Ÿฅข๐Ÿฅณ๐Ÿงง๐ŸŠ

09.02.2025 09:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 19    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Oakland resident dead in hit-and-run crash at intersection The collision happened around 7:10 p.m. Monday near the entrance to Childrenโ€™s Fairyland.

Really sad to hear about Michael Burawoy, who died in a hit-and-run incident in Oakland. Highly respected sociologist also very influential in geography. First encountered his work during my Master/PhD days. Thoughts with his family and colleagues. www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/04/o...

05.02.2025 10:23 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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We are delighted to announce that our conference this year will take place at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, September 11-12. Keynotes speakers have been confirmed (Christian Borch, Fabian Muniesa, Vanessa Ogle) and the call for papers is now open! financeandsocietynetwork.org/finandsoc-co...

31.01.2025 10:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 59    ๐Ÿ” 46    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 8
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2 more weeks to submit your abstracts - join us in Frankfurt to discuss methods, data & approaches to study global finance! ๐Ÿ™‚

With a keynote by Dariusz Wojcik - author of the Atlas of Finance

For full details, check the CfP: tinyurl.com/3z2dy57b

@ineteconomics.bsky.social @goetheuni.bsky.social

30.01.2025 07:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

@karenpylai is following 20 prominent accounts