Abstract

Individual foreign investment in Western nation states is a long-standing geopolitical issue. The expansion of the middle class in BRICS and Asian countries, and their increased activity in Western real estate markets as foreign investors, have introduced new and revived existing cultural and geopolitical sensitivities.

In this book, Dallas Rogers develops a new history of foreign real estate investment by mapping the movement of human and financial capital over more than four centuries. The book argues the reconfiguration of Asian geopolitical power has ruptured the conceptual landscape for understanding international land and real estate relations. Drawing on assemblage theories (Latour, Deleuze and Guattari), assemblage analytical tactics (Sassen and Ong) and discursive media theories (Kittler and Foucault) a series of vignettes of land and real estate crisis are presented. The book demonstrates how foreign land claimers and global real estate professionals colonise, subvert and act beyond the governance structures of settler-societies to facilitate new types of capital circulation and accumulation around the world.
The globalisation of real estate has been a topic where investigative journalists and populist authors have out-paced academic scholars. One of the objectives of this timely and innovative volume by Dallas Rogers is to re-frame current property debates in settler societies. The book both deepens and also reconfigures our understanding of land as commodity through a post-structural exegesis of property episodes across time and space.
David Ley, Professor, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia
Ingenious. With forensic analytical acuity, Dallas Rogers connects seemingly disparate processes and events to reveal the organizing logics that have always driven the geopolitical transfer of land, bodies, labour and capital. Taking us from Indigenous creation stories, to communism in China, Westphalian sovereignty, the invention of title deeds, and the rise of populist wealth-creation manuals Rogers brings a distinctive perspective to studies of geopolitics, real estate and settler-colonialism alike. This is a book that will challenge these heretofore separate debates into a more profound and transformative dialogue with one another.
Libby Porter, Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
The globalisation of real estate is impacting many cities in the world. Whilst many scholars have written two-dimensional descriptive studies of global real estate trends, Dallas Rogers has produced a riveting analysis of the historical forces in global real estate investment. His book provides a rich context for analysing the property markets of the world’s most important cities.
Peter Phibbs, Professor, University of Sydney
This is an extremely ambitious work, demonstrating substantial scholarship and original research.
Dallas Rogers is Lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Western Sydney. His projects investigate the relationships between globalising urban space, infrastructure, and housing poverty and wealth. He has appeared in domestic and international media, participated in a parliamentary briefing, is regularly invited to speak at academic and professional forums and publishes on urban and housing issues in academic and industry journals. Personal webpage: https://dallasrogers.live