Understanding power and its spatiality in the financialisation of the city

Situated in urban and economic geography, this paper proposes a Marxist–ANT (actor-network theory) framework to examine power and its spatiality in the financialisation of the city. The framework recognises the importance of structural dynamics to financialised power and its spatiality. However, it also suggests that actors’ individual interests, which are conditioned by but not reducible to structural dynamics, and the relationships constructed through interaction also exert significant influence. The paper uses China’s financialisation as an empirical case to apply the framework and demonstrate its explanatory power. The findings show that the central government tries to promote sustained capital accumulation through financialisation, while local officials and managers of state-owned enterprises can collaborate in ways that diverge from the goal and advance their personal interests in political career progression. Power spatiality, as reflected through the geographies of actors and capital flows, can be understood by multi-level administrative boundaries and actors’ relations constructed, highlighting its structural and topological dimensions. This framework contributes to financialisation research on power by enriching the critical dialogue between structuralist and post-structuralist perspectives.