DIFFERENTIAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE MARKET

Great Cities Institute as part of the Great Cities Institute Faculty Scholar Seminar Series is pleased to present

DIFFERENTIAL CITIZENSHIP IN THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE MARKET
 Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 3:00 p.m. Great Cities Institute, Suite 400 CUPPA Hall, 412 South Peoria, Chicago, IL 60607

PRESENTER:
PHILIP ASHTON, Faculty Scholar, Great Cities Institute and Assistant Professor, UIC Department of Urban Planning and Policy

Credit risk has been distinctly racialized in the US since its assessment emerged as a "science" in the early 20th century. With the current mortgage crisis as its backdrop, this paper employs a detailed historical analysis of the subprime mortgage market to argue that the racialization of risk has taken on new forms under financial liberalization, producing a dramatic restructuring of citizenship in its wake. It identifies several key moments since the late 1980s where financial crises and situation-specific emergency interventions provided opportunities for federal regulators to isolate toxic (system-threatening) risks, and to roll out new rules governing the formation of markets around different risk segments. These moments segmented minority borrowers into market structures where they were differentially exposed to the perils of high cost lending, reproducing and extending their status as risky investments.

Phil Ashton is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning & Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on financial restructuring, inner city markets, and the financialization of urban policy. His recent publications include "Advantage or disadvantage? The changing institutional landscape of underserved mortgage markets" in Urban Affairs Review (2008), and "An appetite for yield: The anatomy of the subprime mortgage crisis" forthcoming in Environment and Planning A.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Great Cities Institute, 4th Floor CUPPA Hall
412 South Peoria, Suite 400, Chicago, Illinois 60607
Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 3:00 p.m.
Great Cities Institute                                                               .
412 S. Peoria, Suite 400
Chicago, Illinois 60607