Fantus, the business climate and the making of a market in location
| Dates: | 30 April 2020 |
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| Times: | 13:00 - 14:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Manchester Urban Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, External researchers, Alumni, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Andy Wood |
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Described as “one of the most powerful yet obscure consulting firms in U.S. history” (LeRoy 2005) the Fantus company pioneered the practice of corporate site selection and location consulting. The company played a key role in constructing a location market in the United States in which inter-place competition for corporate investment is the natural order of the economic landscape. Drawing on a variety of sources, including the archive of the company’s files, we trace the history of the company, outline its work and examine its pioneering role in creating the local “business climate”. The metric that Fantus created and the ranking of places that accompanies it provide a window on the ways in which metrics and numbers change our perceptions of the value and status of places and locations. We suggest that the particular case of the business climate provides a compelling example of the broader process by which the representation of places and locations in the language of numbers serves to further inter-place competition for capital while obscuring the thoroughly politicized nature of the creation of a market of places and locations.
Speaker
Andy Wood
Role: Associate Professor
Organisation: Ohio State University
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
G35/36
Arthur Lewis Building
Manchester
