Staff profile

I am an economic geographer with research expertise on financial geography. My research interests include geographies of money and finance, global cities, FinTech, service sectors and market formation, focusing particularly on issues of financialisation, knowledge networks, and economic development in Asia. I received my Bachelor and Master degrees in Geography from the National University of Singapore and completed my PhD in Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham. Prior to Durham University, I was previously based at the National University of Singapore and University of British Columbia (Canada).

As the Internationalisation Lead for the Department of Geography at Durham University, I am responsible for internationalisation engagements and strategic planning. I am a founding member and Secretary of the Global Network on Financial Geography (FinGeo). My journal work includes being Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Finance and Space, former Associate Editor for Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, and journal editorial boards/international advisory boards of Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Geoforum, Geography Compass (Economic section), Progress in Economic Geography, and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography.

I am currently working on two strands of research: 1) how FinTech is shaping consumer practices and competitive relationships between financial institutions and technology companies; 2) the growth of data centres in Southeast Asia to analyse the differentiated roles of data services in financial centres, the environmental impacts of data centre growth and associated roles of green finance in this sector. 

A previous stand of research examines the business organisation and networks of investment banks and law firms in Asia and their implications for financial centre development and global/regional financial networks. I have also written on financial subject formation and the financialisation of everyday life, using empirical findings from Asia to build theoretical arguments on financial ecologies and state-led financialisation. 

Research Groups

• Economy & Culture 
• Urban Worlds

• Geographies of money and finance
• International financial centre
• Fintech and digital economies
• Global production/financial networks
• Global cities and world city networks
• Markets and varieties of capitalism/variegated capitalism
• Political economy and development in Asia

Chapter in book

• Lai, K. (2024). Jessie Poon: International Trade and Geographies of Finance. In J. Johns, & S. Marie Hall (Eds.), Contemporary Economic Geographies: Inspiring, Critical and Plural Perspectives. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.56687/9781529220599
• Lai, K. P. (2022). Financial Geography. In D. Richardson, N. Castree, M. Goodchild, A. Kobayashi, W. Liu, & R. Marston (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment and Technology. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0656.pub2
• Stolz, D., & Lai, K. P. (2020). Impact Investing, Social Enterprise and Global Development. In P. Mader, D. Mertens, & N. van der Zwan (Eds.), The Routledge international handbook of financialization (288-300). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315142876-24
• Lai, K. P. (2020). FinTech: The dis/re-intermediation of finance?. In J. Knox-Hayes, & D. Wójcik (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Financial Geography (440-458). Routledge
• Lai, K. P. (2018). Singapore: Connecting Asian markets with global finance. In Y. Cassis, & D. Wojcik (Eds.), International Financial Centres: After the Global Financial Crisis and Brexit (154-181). Oxford University Press
• Lai, K. P. (2018). Financialisation of everyday life. In G. L. Clark, M. P. Feldmann, M. Gertler, & D. Wojcik (Eds.), The new Oxford handbook of economic geography (611-627). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198755609.013.29
• Lai, K. P., & Daniels, J. A. (2017). Financialization of Singaporean banks and the production of variegated financial capitalism. In B. Christophers, A. Leyshon, & G. Mann (Eds.), Money and Finance After the Crisis: Critical Thinking for Uncertain Times (217-244). Wiley

Journal Article

• Lai, K. P. Y. (2025). Financial geography II – green finance and climate transition. Progress in Human Geography, 49(2), 215-226. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325251315158
• Bassens, D., Knox-Hayes, J., Lai, K., Pan, F., & Wójcik, D. (2024). Finance in the age of geoeconomics: intersections of finance, production, and digital technology. Finance and Space, 1(1), 542-555. https://doi.org/10.1080/2833115x.2024.2433898
• Thomsen, L., Lai, K. P., & Ponte, S. (2024). State action and inaction in the shaping of value and wealth entanglements: The role of Singapore in the global ‘gold chain’. Environment and Planning A, 56(8), 2174 - 2195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x231181128
• Bassens, D., Hendrikse, R., Lai, K. P., & van Meeteren, M. (2024). World cities under conditions of digitization and platform capitalism: Updating the advanced producer services complex. Geoforum, 152, Article 104021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2024.104021
• Lai, K. P., & Langley, P. (2024). Playful finance: Gamification and intermediation in FinTech economies. Geoforum, 151, Article 103848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103848
• Wójcik, D., Bassens, D., Knox-Hayes, J., & Lai, K. (2024). Revolution, evolution, progress: Finance & Space manifesto. Finance and Space, 1(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/2833115x.2023.2275952
• Dörry, S., Wójcik, D., Lai, K., & Aalbers, M. (2023). Lost (in) space for dialogue: On the (abandoned) need for working papers in human geography. Environment and Planning F, 2(3), 438-456. https://doi.org/10.1177/26349825231164618
• Lai, K. P. (2023). Financial geography I: The state-finance nexus. Progress in Human Geography, 47(4), 591-603. https://doi.org/10.1177/03091325231170756
• Bailey, A. J., Breines, M., Emmerson, P., Esson, J., Halvorsen, S., Hope, J. C., Joronen, M., Koh, S. Y., Krishnan, S., Lai, K., McFarlane, C., McLean, J., Reid, L., & Sparke, M. (2023). Care for Transactions. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 48(1), 2-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12592
• Fang, C., Pan, F., & Lai, K. P. (2023). The brokerage role of Hong Kong in global financial networks: the case of mainland Chinese companies’ US Listings. Regional Studies, 57(2), 317-329. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2022.2099822
• Liu, F. H., & Lai, K. P. (2021). Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia. Environment and Planning A, 53(8), 1896-1914. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518x211038349
• Lai, K. P., & Pan, F. (2021). Brexit and shifting geographies of financial centres in Asia. Geoforum, 125, 201-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.02.004
• Lai, K. P., & Samers, M. (2021). Towards an economic geography of FinTech. Progress in Human Geography, 45(4), 720-739. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132520938461
• Lai, K. P., Pan, F., Sokol, M., & Wójcik, D. (2020). New Financial Geographies of Asia. Regional Studies, 54(2), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1689549
• Gemici, K., & Lai, K. P. (2020). How 'global' are investment banks? An analysis of investment banking networks in Asian equity capital markets. Regional Studies, 54(2), 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2019.1584393
• Lai, K. P., Lin, S., & Sidaway, J. D. (2020). Financing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI): research agendas beyond the “debt-trap” discourse. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 61(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2020.1726787
• Lai, K. P. (2018). Agency, power, and state-firm relations in global financial networks. Dialogues in Human Geography, 8(3), 285-288. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820618797463
• Lai, K. P. (2017). Unpacking financial subjectivities: Intimacies, governance and socioeconomic practices in financialisation. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 35(5), 913-932. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775817696500
• Lai, K. (2017). Review of world city network. Urban Geography, 38(1), 153-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2016.1208434
• Lai, K. P., & Samers, M. (2016). Conceptualizing Islamic banking and finance: a comparison of its development and governance in Malaysia and Singapore. The Pacific Review, 30(3), 405-424. https://doi.org/10.1080/09512748.2016.1264455
• Lai, K. P. (2016). Financial advisors, financial ecologies and the variegated financialisation of everyday investors. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 41(1), 27-40. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12101
• Clark, G. L., Lai, K. P., & Wójcik, D. (2015). Editorial Introduction to the Special Section: Deconstructing Offshore Finance. Economic Geography, 91(3), 237-249. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecge.12098
• Lai, K. P., & Tan, C. H. (2015). "Neighbours First, Bankers Second" : Mobilising financial citizenship in Singapore. Geoforum, 64, 65-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2015.05.023
• Lai, K. P. (2015). Banking Across Boundaries: Placing Finance in Capitalism by Brett Christophers. Chichester, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, pp. xi + 290 (ISBN: 978-1-4443-3828-7). Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 36(1), 127-128. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12081
• Coe, N. M., Lai, K. P., & Wójcik, D. (2014). Integrating Finance into Global Production Networks. Regional Studies, 48(5), 761-777. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2014.886772
• Lai, K. P. (2013). The Lehman Minibonds crisis and financialisation of investor subjects in Singapore. Area, 45(3), 273-282. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12040

Report

• Chow, W., Lai, K., Liu, F., & Seah, B. (2024). White Paper: Green FinTech and Data Centres in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore Green Finance Centre
• Lai, K., Chow, W., & Liu, F. (2023). Interim report: Green fintech and data centres in Singapore. Singapore Green Finance Centre