Speaker: Su Xiaobo, University of Oregon Financialization has become a central force to reshape urban development. This paper explores one specific mechanism of financialization—state-led venture capital (SVC)—to elucidate an emergent trend in which governments act as equity investors to support startups and scaleups. Such investments are not necessarily aimed at ownership, but rather at fostering

Speaker: Chris Courtney, Associate Professor of Modern Chinese History, University of Durham, UK.Cold chains are a vital component of modern cities. Most histories trace their origins to the advent of the ice trade in the nineteenth century. This paper argues that cold chains have been around a lot longer. In China, they have been used