Brett Christophers
Professor at Department of Human Geography
- Mobile phone:
- +46 73 442 81 36
- E-mail:
- brett.christophers@kultgeog.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Ekonomikum, Kyrkogårdsgatan 10
- Postal address:
- Box 513
751 20 UPPSALA
Download contact information for Brett Christophers at Department of Human Geography
Professor in human geography, especially residential and urban geography at Institute for Housing and Urban Research
- Mobile phone:
- +46 73 442 81 36
- E-mail:
- brett.christophers@ibf.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Trädgårdsgatan 18
- Postal address:
- Box 514
751 20 UPPSALA
Download contact information for Brett Christophers at Institute for Housing and Urban Research
Short presentation
I'm a human geographer based at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. Research-wise, I tend to hop around: things I have written about range from climate change and the energy transition to British colonial history. In recent years much of my focus has been on changing patterns of ownership of socially-significant assets like housing, land and infrastructure, and especially the growing role of asset managers and other major investment institutions.
Biography
I have worked at Uppsala University since 2008.
Previously, I studied at Oxford University (BA, 1993), the University of British Columbia (MA, 1995) and the University of Auckland (PhD, 2008).

Publications
Selection of publications
Anaemic geographies of financialisation
Part of New Political Economy, p. 271-291, 2012
Games and prizes in the economic (and geographical?) performance of markets: Nobel, Shapley and Roth
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 2542-2545, 2012
Part of Economy and Society, p. 112-140, 2011
Revisiting the Urbanization of Capital
Part of Annals of the Association of American Geographers, p. 1347-1364, 2011
Credit, where credit's due: Response to "Follow the thing: credit"
Part of Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space, p. 1089-1091, 2011
Part of Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space, p. 1068-1084, 2011
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 32-34, 2011
On voodoo economics: theorising relations of property, value and contemporary capitalism
Part of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, p. 94-108, 2010
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 856-873, 2010
Part of Encyclopedia of Geography, Sage Publications, 2010
Complexity, finance, and progress in human geography
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 807-824, 2009
Part of International encyclopedia of human geography, p. 12-17, Elsevier, 2009
Envisioning media power: on capital and geographies of television
Lexington Books, 2009
The BBC, the creative class, and neoliberal urbanism in the north of England
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 2313-2329, 2008
Television's power relations in the transition to digital: the case of the United Kingdom
Part of Television and New Media, p. 239-257, 2008
Recent publications
Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
Part of Journal of Cultural Economy, p. 275-278, 2024
- DOI for Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
- Download full text (pdf) of Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
Asset manager capitalism: An introduction to its political economy and economic geography
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 546-557, 2024
Response: the critic, the geographical imagination and the world
Part of Scottish Geographical Journal, p. 437-444, 2023
The rentierization of the United Kingdom economy
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 1438-1470, 2023
Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World
Verso, 2023
All publications
Articles in journal
Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
Part of Journal of Cultural Economy, p. 275-278, 2024
- DOI for Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
- Download full text (pdf) of Author response: on the conditions of possibility of asset-manager society
Asset manager capitalism: An introduction to its political economy and economic geography
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 546-557, 2024
Response: the critic, the geographical imagination and the world
Part of Scottish Geographical Journal, p. 437-444, 2023
The rentierization of the United Kingdom economy
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 1438-1470, 2023
How and Why US Single-Family Housing Became an Investor Asset Class
Part of Journal of urban history, p. 430-449, 2023
- DOI for How and Why US Single-Family Housing Became an Investor Asset Class
- Download full text (pdf) of How and Why US Single-Family Housing Became an Investor Asset Class
Taking Renewables to Market: Prospects for the After-Subsidy Energy Transition
Part of Antipode, p. 1519-1544, 2022
- DOI for Taking Renewables to Market: Prospects for the After-Subsidy Energy Transition
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Mind the rent gap: Blackstone, housing investment and the reordering of urban rent surfaces
Part of Urban Studies, p. 698-716, 2022
- DOI for Mind the rent gap: Blackstone, housing investment and the reordering of urban rent surfaces
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Fossilised Capital: Price and Profit in the Energy Transition
Part of New Political Economy, p. 146-159, 2022
- DOI for Fossilised Capital: Price and Profit in the Energy Transition
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Rentiers, everywhere: a response
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 1275-1276, 2022
Part of Antipode, p. 130-152, 2022
Class, Assets and Work in Rentier Capitalism
Part of Historical Materialism, p. 3-28, 2021
- DOI for Class, Assets and Work in Rentier Capitalism
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The End of Carbon Capitalism (as We Knew It)
Part of Critical Historical Studies, p. 239-269, 2021
A tale of two inequalities: Housing-wealth inequality and tenure inequality
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 573-594, 2021
Stretching scales?: Risk and sociality in climate finance
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 88-110, 2020
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 73-75, 2020
Environmental Beta or How Institutional Investors Think about Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Risk
Part of Annals of the American Association of Geographers, p. 754-774, 2019
- DOI for Environmental Beta or How Institutional Investors Think about Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Risk
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Part of Critical Historical Studies, p. 303-323, 2019
Part of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, p. 571-586, 2019
Intersections of inequality in homeownership in Sweden
Part of Housing Studies, p. 897-924, 2019
- DOI for Intersections of inequality in homeownership in Sweden
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The allusive market: insurance of flood risk in neoliberal Britain
Part of Economy and Society, p. 1-29, 2019
- DOI for The allusive market: insurance of flood risk in neoliberal Britain
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Risking value theory in the political economy of finance and nature
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 330-349, 2018
Part of Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, p. 144-164, 2018
- DOI for Risk capital: Urban political ecology and entanglements of financial and environmental risk in Washington, D.C.
- Download full text (pdf) of Risk capital: Urban political ecology and entanglements of financial and environmental risk in Washington, D.C.
Introduction: The Spatial Constitution of Markets
Part of Economic Geography, p. 211-216, 2018
Financialisation as Monopoly Profit: The Case of US Banking
Part of Antipode, p. 864-890, 2018
Remaking Mortgage Markets by Remaking Mortgages: US Housing Finance after the Crisis
Part of Economic Geography, p. 238-258, 2018
Intergenerational Inequality?: Labour, Capital, and Housing Through the Ages
Part of Antipode, p. 101-121, 2018
Part of Annals of the American Association of Geographers, p. 1108-1127, 2017
Seeing financialization?: Stylized facts and the economy multiple
Part of Geoforum, p. 259-268, 2017
The State and Financialization of Public Land in the United Kingdom
Part of Antipode, p. 62-85, 2017
The performativity of the yield curve
Part of Journal of Cultural Economy, p. 63-80, 2017
Geographies of finance III: Regulation and 'after-crisis' financial futures
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 138-148, 2016
For real: land as capital and commodity
Part of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, p. 134-148, 2016
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 485-503, 2016
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 158-161, 2016
Part of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, p. 1094-1110, 2016
Thinking around, through and beyond The Great Leveler: Key themes
Part of ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING A, p. 2550-2555, 2016
The Law's Markets: Envisioning and effecting the boundaries of competition
Part of Journal of Cultural Economy, p. 125-143, 2015
Geographies of finance II: Crisis, space and political-economic transformation
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 205-213, 2015
Banking Spatially on the Future: Capital Switching, Infrastructure, and the Ecological Fix
Part of Annals of the Association of American Geographers, p. 378-386, 2015
Part of Economy and Society, p. 188-217, 2015
The limits to financialization
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 183-200, 2015
From financialization to finance: For ‘de-financialization’
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 229-232, 2015
Constructing and deconstructing markets: making space for capital
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 1859-1865, 2015
Against (the idea of) financial markets
Part of Geoforum, p. 85-93, 2015
Value models: Finance, risk,and political economy
Part of Finance and Society, p. 1-22, 2015
Value models: Finance, risk, and political economy
Part of Finance and Society, p. 1-22, 2015
Part of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, p. 79-97, 2014
Is finance productive (and other important questions)?: A response to Block, Blyth, and Engelen
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 256-261, 2014
The inherent challenges of human geography
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 327-329, 2014
Centring Housing in Political Economy
Part of Housing, Theory and Society, p. 373-394, 2014
Part of Economic Geography, p. 429-450, 2014
Part of Antipode, p. 1054-1071, 2014
From Marx to market and back again: Performing the economy
Part of Geoforum, p. 12-20, 2014
Is finance productive (and other important questions)?: A response to Block, Blyth, and Engelen
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 256-261, 2014
Geographies of finance I: Historical geographies of the crisis-ridden present
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 285-293, 2014
The Housing Question under Capitalist Political Economies
Part of Housing, Theory and Society, p. 422-428, 2014
The territorial fix: Price, power and profit in the geographies of markets
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 754-770, 2014
Intervention - Mad World?: On the Social Construction of Economic Value
Part of Antipode, 2013
A monstrous hybrid: the political economy of housing in early-twenty-first century Sweden
Part of New Political Economy, p. 885-911, 2013
Banking and competition in exceptional times
Part of Seattle University Law Review, p. 563-576, 2013
Anaemic geographies of financialisation
Part of New Political Economy, p. 271-291, 2012
Games and prizes in the economic (and geographical?) performance of markets: Nobel, Shapley and Roth
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 2542-2545, 2012
Part of Economy and Society, p. 112-140, 2011
Revisiting the Urbanization of Capital
Part of Annals of the Association of American Geographers, p. 1347-1364, 2011
Credit, where credit's due: Response to "Follow the thing: credit"
Part of Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space, p. 1089-1091, 2011
Part of Environment & Planning. D, Society and Space, p. 1068-1084, 2011
Part of Dialogues in Human Geography, p. 32-34, 2011
On voodoo economics: theorising relations of property, value and contemporary capitalism
Part of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, p. 94-108, 2010
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 856-873, 2010
Complexity, finance, and progress in human geography
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 807-824, 2009
The BBC, the creative class, and neoliberal urbanism in the north of England
Part of Environment and planning A, p. 2313-2329, 2008
Television's power relations in the transition to digital: the case of the United Kingdom
Part of Television and New Media, p. 239-257, 2008
Ships in the night: Journeys in cultural imperialism and postcolonialism
Part of International journal of cultural studies, p. 283-302, 2007
Underpopulation, television economies, and the power of the geographical imagination
Part of Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography, p. 39-51, 2007
Enframing creativity: Power, geographical knowledges and the media economy
Part of Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, p. 235-247, 2007
Articles, review/survey
Part of Antipode, 2013
Part of Cultural Geographies, p. 156-161, 2007
Books
Our Lives in Their Portfolios: Why Asset Managers Own the World
Verso, 2023
David Harvey: A Critical Introduction to His Thought
Routledge, 2022
Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?
Verso, 2020
Economic Geography: A Critical Introduction
Wiley-Blackwell, 2018
The New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain
Verso, 2018
Money and Finance after the Crisis: Critical Thinking for Uncertain Times
Wiley-Blackwell, 2017
The Great Leveler: Capitalism and Competition in the Court of Law
Harvard University Press, 2016
Banking Across Boundaries: Placing Finance in Capitalism
Wiley-Blackwell, 2013
Envisioning media power: on capital and geographies of television
Lexington Books, 2009
Chapters in book
Part of Keywords in Radical Geography, p. 248-252, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019
Money and Finance after the Crisis: Taking Critical Stock
Part of Money and Finance after the Crisis, Wiley-Blackwell, 2017
Petals not thorns: Competition policy and finance
Part of Controlling Capital, p. 58-73, Routledge, 2016
Petals not thorns: Competition policy and finance
Part of Controlling Capital, Routledge, 2016
Cultural Industries and the (Geographical) Political Economy of the Media
Part of Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media, Springer, 2015
Part of The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015
Part of The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Political Geography, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015
Cultural Industries and the (Geographical) Political Economy of the Media
Part of Mediated Geographies and Geographies of Media, Springer, 2015
Part of The Ashgate Research Companion to Media Geography , p. 363-376, Ashgate, 2014
Part of Encyclopedia of Geography, Sage Publications, 2010
Part of International encyclopedia of human geography, p. 12-17, Elsevier, 2009
Other
Book review symposium: New Enclosure: The Appropriation of Public Land in Neoliberal Britain
Part of Urban Studies, p. 439-453, 2020
Part of International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, p. 1066-1067, 2016
Monopolizing Neoliberalism Away
Part of Antipode, 2015
Monopolizing Neoliberalism Away
Part of AntiopodeFoundation.org, 2015
Sovereign Wealth Funds: Legitimacy, Governance, and Global Power
Part of Journal of Economic Geography, p. 226-227, 2014
Part of Journal of Economic Geography, p. 226-227, 2014
Book review symposium: Locating banks, tracking money
Part of Progress in Human Geography, p. 319-329, 2014