Mirjam Büdenbender is a doctoral candidate at KU Leuven. Her research is part of the ERC funded project on the ‘Real Estate/Financial Complex’, which investigates the linkages between real estate markets and financial practices in contemporary capitalist societies. Mirjam studies the case of Russia and Poland. In so doing, she explicitly addresses the relationship between real estate and modern financial practices as well as their differential construction in post-Soviet societies.
As part of this project, Mirjam spends several periods of field research in her respective case countries. In Moscow she works as a research intern at the Institute for Urban Economics. Her fieldwork includes interviewing academics and professionals in real estate and related sector, analysing newspapers, government and industry documents, and accessing locally produced secondary material.
Previously Mirjam completed a BA (First Class Honours) in International Relations and Development Studies at the University of Sussex (2011) and a Master (Distinction) in Political Economy at the University of Manchester (2012).
In her previous degrees Mirjam studied the political economy of finance and the financialisation of everyday life through the lenses of housing markets. Her bachelor dissertation investigated the financialisation of the residential housing market in post-Apartheid South Africa. Her master’s thesis explored the historical origins and subsequent failure of the housing market as a growth and welfare model in the UK.
Mirjam speaks German (native language), English (full professional proficiency), Russian (professional proficiency) and French (basic). She has training in NVivo, SPSS and elite interviewing.
The geopolitics of real estate: how Russia learned the political value of property
Apr 05, 2016 13:30 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics Real Estate
Over the past three decades, real estate has gained a new significance on the world stage. Many states have relaxed laws to open up national property markets to international buyers. This has not only intensified...
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