Emerging markets in a shifting global financial architecture: the case of Islamic securitization in the Gulf region

Given major geo-economic shifts in the wake of the global financial crisis, this paper sets out to review major debates in the field of geographies of emerging markets (EM). Observing lingering implicit assumptions about the undirectionality behind the emergence of EM discourses and practices, the paper argues that contemporary processes of South-South and South-North investment call for a ‘decentred’ view on EM integration. Such a decentred framework allows us to research whether geographical shifts in the world of global finance indeed imply a fundamental shift the nature of its practices. In this paper, I therefore explore the case of Islamic securitization in the Gulf Region, which constitutes a veritable geo-economic hinge in a shifting global economy. Here, I argue, bilateral negotiation processes take place between vectors of global finance such as investment banks on the one hand, and EM client firms and Islamic banks on the other hand, in order to find a viable context-sensitive financing solution. While this case acknowledges the blossoming plurality of global finance, the paper concludes with the view that this plurality is nevertheless mainly reproducing existing power configurations within the global financial architecture.