Networks of speculation: Making land markets on Myanmar Facebook
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Standard
Networks of speculation : Making land markets on Myanmar Facebook. / Wittekind, Courtney T.; Faxon, Hilary Oliva.
I: Antipode, Bind 55, Nr. 2, 2023, s. 643-665.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Networks of speculation
T2 - Making land markets on Myanmar Facebook
AU - Wittekind, Courtney T.
AU - Faxon, Hilary Oliva
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Digital platforms have changed how property is sold and valued in the Global North, yet little is known about digital tools in emerging land markets. Drawing on in situ and digital ethnography, we argue that Facebook plays a key role in making a new kind of market in Myanmar, one in which land is transformed into a speculative asset, exchanged across ever-expanding networks. While commodification is familiar within longer histories of capitalism, this case highlights the significance of digital platforms to the contemporary remaking of property relations. Unlike classic cases of market-making enabled by active state regulation, Myanmar's digital land markets were forged in the context of state absence by brokers who harnessed the technological affordances of social media to increase the scale, scope and speed of transactions. This creative re-appropriation of the platform forged new, unregulated digital markets that ultimately accumulated corporate profits and intensified participant risk.
AB - Digital platforms have changed how property is sold and valued in the Global North, yet little is known about digital tools in emerging land markets. Drawing on in situ and digital ethnography, we argue that Facebook plays a key role in making a new kind of market in Myanmar, one in which land is transformed into a speculative asset, exchanged across ever-expanding networks. While commodification is familiar within longer histories of capitalism, this case highlights the significance of digital platforms to the contemporary remaking of property relations. Unlike classic cases of market-making enabled by active state regulation, Myanmar's digital land markets were forged in the context of state absence by brokers who harnessed the technological affordances of social media to increase the scale, scope and speed of transactions. This creative re-appropriation of the platform forged new, unregulated digital markets that ultimately accumulated corporate profits and intensified participant risk.
KW - digital
KW - technology
KW - property
KW - commodification
KW - platform capitalism
KW - Myanmar
KW - FINANCIALIZATION
KW - PROPERTY
KW - RESOURCE
KW - ECONOMY
U2 - 10.1111/anti.12896
DO - 10.1111/anti.12896
M3 - Journal article
VL - 55
SP - 643
EP - 665
JO - Antipode
JF - Antipode
SN - 0066-4812
IS - 2
ER -
ID: 324372127