Place, institutional spatiality, and the localisation of financial calculative practices

Abstract

This paper uses an ethnographic study of a bank in rural China to explore the localisation of financial calculative practices. Drawing on financial geography literatures, the analysis examines different aspects of institutional spatiality, with special attention to the everyday logic of place-based financial practices and to the broader territorial dynamics of state regulations. Ultimately, the paper argues that taking into account the spatiality of China's rural financial institutions—specifically in relation to the idea of ‘county place’—is fundamental to understanding the localisation of financial calculative practices in Chinese agrarian finance.