Prof Sarah Hall

1931 Professor of Geography and Fellow of St John’s College.

Sarah is a public economic geographer whose work focuses on the uneven impacts of profound economic change including Brexit, the changing economic position of China internationally and the rise of finance led capitalism. She regularly uses her research findings to contribute to academic, public and policy debate.

Biography

Awards

• 2023 – Deputy Director, UK in a Changing Europe
• 2019- Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe
• 2015-2017 British Academy Mid Career Fellowship

Research

I am an economic geographer whose research develops geographically sensitive cultural economy approaches to the economy in order to shape academic, public and policy debate at a time of profound economic disruption.

I develop these public economic geographies through a range of research projects that examine how macro-economic change is experienced in geographical variegated ways. This includes work on: the economic impacts of Brexit; the impacts of the development of finance led capitalism; the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis and the changing position of China within the world economy.

I am particularly interested in advancing cultural political economy approaches that bring a focus on social and cultural processes into closer dialogue with the political economy of global finance.

Supported by funding from the ESRC, The British Academy, The Leverhulme Trust and the Nuffield Foundation, the majority of my research is focused on the UK and its relations with the EU, the US and China. My research has been covered by leading media outlets including The Financial Times, the BBC, The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph and Wired Magazine.

I am currently Deputy Director and a Senior Fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe where I’m focusing on Brexit, the UK’s financial services sector and the changing economic geography of the UK. I am co-Editor-in-Chief of Geoforum and held a British Academic Mid Career Fellowship (2016-2017). In 2020, I was elected a fellow of The Academic of Social Sciences.

Selected funded research projects

• 2023-2025 ESRC Deputy Director, UK in a Changing Europe (£281,000).
• 2022-2025 ESRC Senior Fellowship with the UK in a Changing Europe ‘Levelling up? Implications and impacts of changing geopolitical landscapes for the UK’s economic geography’ (£495,600)
• 2022 ESRC ‘Real time data to understand local conditions, needs and potential’ £145,410 (with John Gathergood PI)
• 2019-23 ESRC Senior Fellowship within the UK in a Changing Europe scheme ‘Financial services in a changing Europe: Brexit and financial centres across the UK’ (£461,468).
• 2015-17 British Academy Mid-Career fellowship, New mobile elites: motivations, experiences and trajectories of highly skilled Chinese migrants in London (£102,515.20).
• 2015 – 2020 Leverhulme Trust Programme Grant on Sustaining Urban Habitats: an interdisciplinary approach (CO-I, PI Darren Robinson) (£227,598, total grant £1.75, income)
• 2011-2014 The British Academy, Globalizing for-profit business education service firms and the making of education markets in the UK and US 2011-2014 (£5,705)
• 2008-2010 Spaces of business education and the (re)production of financial theory in practice, ESRC First Grant, PI, 2008-2010 (£189,350).
• 2006-2007 The globalization of Europe’s executive search industry and elite labour recruitment geographies (Co-I with Professor Jon Beaverstock (PI) and Dr James Faulconbridge) 2006-2007(£44,968)

Publications

Books

1. Hall S (2021) Respatialising finance: power, politics and offshore renminbi market making in London (Wiley, Blackwell)
2. Hall S (2017) Global finance: places, spaces and people (London, Sage) pp. 162
3. Beaverstock JV, Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2015) The globalization of executive search: professional services strategy and dynamics in the contemporary world (London & New York, Routledge)

Journal papers

• Hall S, Leaver A, Seabrooke, L and Tischer D 2023 The changing spatial arrangements of global finance: financial, social and legal infratrcutres, Environment and Planning A https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X231159396
• Hall S and Heneghan M (2023) Brexit and ‘missing financial services jobs in the United Kingdom Contemporary Social Science https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2023.2189294
• Hall S and Heneghan M (2023) Interlocking corporate and policy networks in financial services: Paris-London relations post Brexit. Advances in Economic Geography
• Hall S (2023) Anticipating Sino-UK fintech networks and the changing geographies of money as infrastructure Environment and Planning A 55, 4, 931 – 948 https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X221140413
• Hall S (2023) Locating state capitalism: financial centres and the internationalisation of Chinese banks in London. Environment and Planning A 55, 5, 1239-1254 https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X221130080 55
• Heneghan M and Hall S (2021) The new geography of European financial centres: fragmentation in Europe and concentration in the UK? European Urban and Regional Studies
• Pan, F, Hall S and Zhang H (2020) The spatial dynamics of financial activities in Beijing: agglomeration economies and urban planning, Urban Geography
• Hall S (2019) Reframing labour market mobility in global finance: Chinese elites in London’s financial district Urban Geography 40, 5, 699-718
• Hall S (2018) Placing the state within geofinance Dialogues in human geography 8, 3, 281-284
• Töpfer L M and Hall S (2018) London’s rise as an offshore RMB financial centre: state–finance relations and selective institutional adaptation, Regional Studies 52, 8, 1053-1064
• Hall S (2018) Regulating the geographies of market making: Offshore Renminbi markets in London’s international financial district, Economic Geography 94, 3, 259-278
• Hall S and Wojcik D (2018) ‘Ground zero’ of Brexit and London as an international financial centre Geoforum
• Hall S (2017) Rethinking international financial centres through the politics of territory: renminbi internationalisation in London’s financial district Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 42, 4, 485 – 668
• Hall S (2015) Geographies of marketisation in English higher education: territorial and relational markets and the case of undergraduate student fees, Area 47, 4, 451-45
• Hall S (2015) Financial networks and the globalisation of transnational corporations: the case of educational services Journal of Economic Geography, 15, 3, 539-559
• Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2014) Reproducing the City of London’s institutional landscape: the role of education and the learning of situated practices by early career elites Environment and Planning A 46, 7, 1682-1698
• Hall S (2013) Business education and the (re)production of gendered cultures of work in the City of London, Social Politics 20, 2, 222-241
• Hall S and Leyshon A (2013) Financialisation, space and place, Regional Studies 47, 6, 831-833
• Beaverstock, J.V., Hall, S. and Wainwright, T. (2013) Servicing the super-rich: new financial elites and the rise of the private wealth management retail ecology Regional Studies 47, 6, 834-849
• Hall S (2013) Geographies of money and finance III: financial circuits and the ‘real economy’ Progress in Human Geography 37, 2, 285 – 292
• Hall S (2012) Making space for markets in economic geography Dialogues in Human Geography 2, 2, 142-145
• Hall S and Appleyard L (2012) Financial business education and the remaking of gendered investment banking subjects in the (post crisis) City of London Journal of Cultural Economy 5, 4, 457-472
• Hall S (2012) Geographies of money and finance II: Financialization and financial subjects Progress in Human Geography 36, 3, 403-411
• Beaverstock, J.V. and Hall, S. (2012) Competing for talent: Global mobility, immigration and the City of London’s labour market Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 5, 271-287
• Hall S and Appleyard L (2011) Commoditising learning: Cultural economy and the growth of for-profit educational service firms Environment and Planning A, 43, 10-27
• Hall S (2011) Geographies of money and finance I: Cultural economy, politics and place Progress in Human Geography, 35, 2, 234-245
• Hall S (2011) Educational ties, social capital and the trans-local reproductionof MBA alumni networks Global Networks, 11, 1, 118-138
• Hall S and Appleyard L (2011) Trans-local academic credentials and the (re)production of financial elites Globalisation, Societies and Education 9, 2, 247-264
• Hodgson D, Muzio D, Faulconbridge JR, Beaverstock JV and Hall S (2011) Towards corporate professionalization: the case of project management, management consultancy and executive search Current Sociology 59, 4, 443-464
• Beaverstock J V, Faulconbridge J R and Hall S (2010) Professionalization, legitimization and the creation of executive search markets in Europe Journal of Economic Geography 10, 6, 825-843
• Hall S (2009) Ecologies of business education and the geographies of knowledge Progress in Human Geography 33, 5, 599-618
• Hall S and Appleyard L (2009) ‘City of London, City of Learning?’ Placing business education within the geographies of finance Journal of Economic Geography 9, 5, 597-617
• Hall S (2009) Financialized elites and the changing nature of finance capitalism: Investment bankers in London’s financial district Competition and Change 13, 2 175-191
• Hall S, Beaverstock JV, Faulconbridge JR and Hewitson A (2009) Exploring cultural economies of internationalization: the role of ‘iconic individuals’ and ‘brand leaders’ in the globalization of headhunting Global Networks 9, 3, 399-419
• Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2009) Educating professionals and professional education in a geographical context Geography Compass 3, 1, 171-189
• Faulconbridge JR, Beaverstock JV, Hall S and Hewitson A (2009) The ‘war for talent’: unpacking the gatekeeper role of executive search firms in elite labour markets Geoforum 40, 800-808
• Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2009) Organisational geographies of power Geoforum 40, 785-789
• Hall S (2008) Geographies of business education: MBA programmes, reflexive business schools and the cultural circuit of capital Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 33, 1, 27-41
• Faulconbridge J R, Hall S and Beaverstock JV (2008) New insights into the internationalization of producer services: organizational strategies and spatial economies for global headhunting firms Environment and Planning A, 40, 1, 210-234
• Hall S (2007) ‘Relational marketplaces’ and the rise of boutiques in London’s corporate finance industry Environment and Planning A, 39, 8, 1838-1845
• Hall S (2007) Knowledge makes the money go round: conflicts of interest and corporate finance in London’s financial district Geoforum, 38, 4, 710-719
• Hall S (2006) What counts? Exploring the production of quantitative financial narratives in London’s corporate finance industry Journal of Economic Geography, 6, 5, 661-678

Contributions to edited collections

• Hall S (2023) Linda McDowell In Hubbard, P., Kitchen, R. and Valentine, G. (eds) Key thinkers on Space and Place (London, Sage) pp307-314
• Hall S (2023) Susan Strange: Trading Zones in Jones, S and Hall S Contemporary Economic Geography (2023) eds)
• Hall S (2022) The economics of UK financial services post Brexit. In Portes J ed The economics of Brexit: what have we learned? CEPR https://voxeu.org/system/files/epublication/Economics%20of%20Brexit.pdf
• Hall S (2021) Cultural economy of finance In Knox-Hayes J and Wojcik D (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Financial Geography 84-102
• Hall S (2018) Epilogue: Placing politics and power within the making of global cities In Hoyler M, Parnreiter C and Watson A (eds) Global City Makers: economic actors and practices in the world city network Edward Elgar
• Hall S (2017) (Post)graduate education markets and the formation of mobile transnational economic elites. In Gluckler J, Lazega E and Hammer I (eds) Knowledge and Networks, Springer 103-116, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-45023-0_6
• Hall S (2017) Elite Labour. In N Castree, M Goodchild, W Liu, A Kobayashi, R Marston and D Richardson (eds) The International Encyclopaedia of Geography (Wiley Blackwell, Association of American Geographers) DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0050
• Faulconbridge J R, Beaverstock JV and Hall S (2017) Corporate spatial organization and producer services In N Castree, M Goodchild, W Liu, A Kobayashi, R Marston and D Richardson (eds) The International Encyclopaedia of Geography (Wiley Blackwell, Association of American Geographers) DOI: 10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0710
• Hall S (2016) Variegated geographies of finance: international financial centres and the (re)production of financial working cultures. in Erturk I and Gabor D, Routledge Companion to Banking Regulation and Reform, London, Routledge
• Beaverstock JV and Hall S (2016) Super-rich capitalism: managing and preserving private wealth management in the offshore world in Hay I and Beaverstock J V (eds) Handbook of Wealth and the Super-rich Edward Elgar, Cheltenham 401-421
• Hall S (2015) Financialisation and the production of new financial elites through business education in Peters, M, Paraskeva J and Besley T (eds) The global financial crisis and educational restructuring, Peter Lang Publishing, New York 265-284 978 1 4331 2539 3
• Faulconbridge JR, Beaverstock JV and Hall S (2015) Executive search agencies in Needle D and Guest D (eds) Wiley Encyclopaedia of Management 3^rd Edition, Volume 5, Human Resource Management Wiley-Blackwell DOI: 10.1002/9781118785317.weom050032
• Hall, S (2014) Money and Finance in Cloke P, Goodwin M and Crang P (eds) Introducing Human Geographies 3^rd Edition Routledge, 369-377
• Beaverstock, JV, Hall S and Wainwright T (2013) Overseeing the fortunes of the global super-rich: the nature of private wealth management in London’s financial district in Hay I (ed) Geographies of the super-rich Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp 43-60
• Hall S (2012) Theory, practice and crisis: changing economic geographies of money and finance In T Barnes, J Peck and E Sheppard (eds) The new companion to economic geography (Wiley Blackwell) pp 91-103
• Beaverstock JV, Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2012) Executive Search In Ritzer G (ed) The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Globalization (Wiley Blackwell) pp.615-621
• Faulconbridge J and Hall S (2012) Business knowledges within and between the world city In Taylor P, Derudder B, Hoyler M and Witlox F (eds) International handbook of globalization and world cities (London, Edward Elgar) pp 230-239
• Hall S (2010) Linda McDowell. In Hubbard, P., Kitchen, R. and Valentine, G. (eds) Key thinkers on Space and Place (London, Sage) pp307-314
• Faulconbridge JR and Hall S (2009) Economics and Human Geography. In R Kitchen and N Thrift (eds) International encyclopaedia of Human Geography, Volume 3 (Oxford, Elsevier) pp 332-337
• Beaverstock JV, Hall S and Faulconbridge J (2006) The internationalization of Europe’s contemporary transnational executive search industry. In J W Harrington and P Daniels (eds) Knowledge-based services: internationalization and regional development (Ashgate) pp 125-152

Teaching

I contribute to a teaching in economic geography.

External activities

• Co-Editor-in-Chief, Geoforum
• Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, UK in a Changing Europe