General Events

Hidden Empire of Finance: How Wall Street Profits from our Cities and fuels Global Inequality
Prof. Goldman will present his new book Hidden Empire of Finance (Duke U Press, 2026) and explain the role of global finance in the worsening inequities in our cities. He will highlight why and how this recent phenomenon of “speculative urbanism” relies on dispossession and the racialization of institutional practices to fuel global finance's insatiable appetite, determining the ways cities across the global South and North are governed. If we have time, we can use this framing to help us understand some of the forces behind the siege of Minneapolis, a violent moment worth reflecting upon, as well as the powerful citywide response. 

Michael Goldman is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. He is the author of Imperial Nature and the co-editor of The Social Lives of Land and Chronicles of a Global City, among others.