Financialisation, the brewing industry and the changing role of the pub in Britain and Germany Liam Francis Keenan Doctor of Philosophy School of Geography, Politics & Sociology Newcastle University July 2017 Abstract Financialisation has been understood in varying ways from different disciplinary perspectives. Developing a political economy approach concerned with the geographical and institutional variegation of national capitalisms, this thesis aims to provide a more finely grained, geographically sensitive understanding of financialisation which more thoroughly appreciates the constitutive roles of space and place. Taking the dramatic reductions in the number of pubs in Britain and Germany as the entry point, the empirical focus seeks to explain the roles of financialisation in the pubs business at both national and sub-national scales. The changing role and closures of pubs will be utilised to explain how the processes of financialisation are reorienting economic interests, transforming corporate forms, enrolling an increasing number and widening set of actors into the global financial system, and impacting the experience of an economically and socially significant sector of the economy. The international comparison serves to explain how while the processes of financialisation maintain certain general characteristics they are unfolding in geographically differentiated and uneven ways shaped by the institutional configurations of variegations of capitalism. Whilst exhibiting core constituents and common underlying tendencies, it will be argued that the spatially and temporally variegated phenomena of financialisation is enacted, mediated and resisted by geographically grounded actors and institutions. Keywords: Financialisation; Variegated Capitalism; Pubs; Brewing i Acknowledgements I would like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the North East Doctoral Training Centre (NEDTC) for funding and essentially making this PhD thesis a reality. My time at Newcastle University has been remarkable. I would like to thank all of my friends, colleagues and staff throughout the university, particularly those within the geography department, for not only helping me throughout this process but also providing me with an unforgettable experience full of great memories. Undertaking my PhD at the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) has given me first-hand experience of the true excellence of the research centre. I would like to thank all of my colleagues and friends at CURDS for their unwavering support. Special thanks must go to my supervisors, Andy Pike, Jane Pollard, Neill Marshall and Paul Langley. Not only have you provided invaluable academic advice throughout the last three years, your more general care and support has made this entire experience an absolute pleasure and filled me with confidence as I take the next step in my career. I would also like to thank all of my friends and family who have helped along the way. These last few years have been a great experience and you have only made it better. A special thanks to my Mum, Dad, Paul, Louis and Henry. ii Table of Contents List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ ix List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. xii List of Acronyms ...................................................................................................................... xiii List of Appendices ................................................................................................................... xiv Chapter 1: Introduction.............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research rationale: understanding the relationships between financialisation and the changing role of the pub .................................................................................................. 3 1.2 The missing geographies of financialisation................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Critiquing the geographies of the financialisation of the firm ................................ 10 1.2.2 Financialisation and agency: responding, mediating and resisting the logics of financialisation .................................................................................................................. 11 1.2.3 The omission of socio-cultural financialisation at firm-level ................................... 12 1.2.4 Financialisation and capitalism ................................................................................ 12 1.2.5 Grounding financialisation: addressing the lack of empirical analysis .................... 14 1.3 Outlining the aims and framework of the research ....................................................... 15 1.4 Thesis structure .............................................................................................................. 17 Chapter 2: The geographies of financialisation and variegated capitalism ............................. 21 2.1 Epochal change: macro perspectives of financialisation and contemporary capitalism .............................................................................................................................. 22 2.1.1 The financial regime of accumulation ..................................................................... 22 2.1.2 The slowing of growth and the acceleration of inequality ...................................... 23 2.1.3 Financialisation as a “new sphere of accumulation” ............................................... 26 2.2 Meso and micro abstractions: the financialisation of the firm and everyday life ......... 29 iii 2.2.1 “Moving to the rhythm of Wall Street”: financially-driven competition and the emergence of financialised business models ............................................................. 29 2.2.2 Financial market participants: sociocultural accounts of financialisation .............. 37 2.3 Variegations in capitalism: the role of the state and accompanying institutions ......... 40 2.3.1 Varieties of capitalism ............................................................................................. 40 2.3.2 The dichotomy of capitalism ................................................................................... 41 2.3.3 Variegated capitalism: acknowledging the plurality, variegation and uneven expressions of capitalism .................................................................................................. 46 2.4 Addressing anaemic geographies of financialisation ..................................................... 54 2.4.1 Grounding the omnipresent: the inherently spatial nature of financialisation ...... 54 2.5 Moving towards an analytical framework: existing literature, research aims and making sense of data ............................................................................................................ 62 2.5.1 Epochal change: macro perspectives of financialisation and contemporary capitalism .......................................................................................................................... 62 2.5.2 Meso and micro abstractions: firms, individuals and the geographies of financialisation .................................................................................................................. 63 2.5.3 Variegated capitalism: the role of the state and accompanying institutions ......... 64 2.5.4 Addressing anaemic geographies of financialisation .............................................. 66 2.5.5 Analytical framework: actually existing forms of financialisation ........................... 66 Chapter 3: A methodology for the study of financialisation across variegated capitalisms ................................................................................................................................ 73 3.1 Developing case studies or “critical cases” .................................................................... 74 3.2 Newcastle and Dortmund: analysing the sub-national heterogeneity of capitalism and uneven unfolding of financialisation ............................................................................. 76 3.3 Primary data collection .................................................................................................. 79 3.3.1 Corroboration and triangulation ............................................................................. 83 3.3.2 Semi-structured Interviews ..................................................................................... 85 3.4 Secondary data collection: analysis of documents and accounts .................................. 91 iv 3.5 Ethical considerations: confidentiality, anonymity and informed consent ................... 93 3.6 Conclusion: undertaking a study on the role of financialisation across variegated institutional contexts ............................................................................................................ 95 Chapter 4: Contextualising the relationships between financialisation and pub closures in Britain and Germany ............................................................................................................ 96 4.1 The evolution of pubs and brewing................................................................................ 97 4.1.1 Trends in global brewing and the consumption