It was a full house at Stanfords last night to hear Dariusz Wójcik and James Cheshire talk about the Atlas of Finance: Mapping the Global Story of Money.
Atlas of Finance is the first ever published book-size collection of maps and visuals dedicated to the topic of finance and a unique illustrated exploration of the development of finance that combines data from every part of the world and covers five thousand years of history. From the emergence of money in the ancient world to today’s interconnected landscape of high-frequency trading and crypto currency, the story of finance has always taken place on an international stage. Finance is one of the most globalized and networked of human activities, and one of the most important social technologies ever invented.
The Atlas uses graphics and maps to bring the complex and abstract world of finance down to earth, showing how geography is fundamental for understanding finance, and vice versa. It illuminates the people—including Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes—who have shaped our thinking about global finance; brings to life the ways that place-specific histories, laws, regulations, and institutions influence finance; shows how finance relates to innovation, globalization, and environmental change; and details how finance plays a key part in drawing the landscape of uneven development, inequality, and instability.
The atlas addresses many questions relevant to London’s history, its present position, and possible futures in global finance. Why does the hierarchy of financial centres change so slowly? How does London compare to other financial centres? Will financial technology change the map of global finance? At the same time, it asks questions relevant to everyday lives of people as affected by finance. What are the best financial investments across history? What is financial literacy? How to prepare financially for the effects of climate change?
About the speakers:
Dariusz Wójcik is a Professor of Finacial Geography at National University of Singapore and an Honorary Research Associate atOxfordUniversity. While specializing in financial geography, he has published widely in human geography and urban studies, finance and economics, and political economy. His recent books include The New Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography (OUP), International Financial Centres After the Financial Crisis and Brexit (OUP), and Sticky Power: Global Financial Networks in the world.
James Cheshire is Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography at University College London. He is co-author of the London: The Information Capital, Where the Animals Go and Atlas of the Invisible. James has received a number of prizes for his work, most notably the Cuthbert Peek Award from the Royal Geographical Society and the Corlis Benefideo Award from the North American Cartographic Information Society.
