Assembling Financialisation: Local Actors and the Making of Agricultural Investment

Farmers, Indigenous organisations, government and private-sector intermediaries from remote Northern Australia often negotiate with private finance capital to gain funds for agricultural development.The concept of financialisation is used to explore the drivers and effects of agri-food restructuring in the area, while assemblage theory is applied to position local actors as potential sites of power in negotiating connections between local spaces and global finance. This book demonstrates that while financialisation is a useful signifier of patterns of global change, it is assembled by a diverse range of often contradictory work. Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Assembling Financialisation Chapter 2. A Brief History of Northern Development Chapter 3. The Investment Proposition Chapter 4. Making Land Valuable Chapter 5. The Moral Economies of Debt Chapter 6. How to Get an Investor Chapter 7. ‘Unlocking’ the Indigenous Estate Chapter 8. COVID-19 and Seven Years of ‘Developing Northern Australia Conclusion. Messy Assemblages References Index