In this paper we explore the relationship between knowledge, trust, and space in the production and consumption of retail financial services as part of a wider enquiry into processes of financial exclusion. (1) The analysis in this paper is influenced by two metaphors that have recently been the subject of considerable critical attention within the social science literature. The first metaphor is that of the network. From the work of Castells (2001), and that of actor-network theorists such as Latour, Callon, and others (Callon, 1988; Law and Hassard, 1999), the metaphor of the network is now widely used within economically oriented research to give a sense of the relative connectedness of individuals, institutions, and places to broader social processes (for example,

The aim of the paper is to assess the role of doorstep credit companies in the delivery of financial services in areas affected by high levels of financial and social exclusion. In particular, the paper looks at the relationship between agents and customers using two metaphors associated with interaction between different species in an ecological setting-namely, parasitism and symbiotic mutualism. The metaphor of parasitism circulates widely within debates about moneylending in the media and among advocacy groups, such as the Consumer Association, that work on behalf of low-income individuals and households. The metaphor of symbiotic mutualism describes the depiction of the relationship between consumers and moneylenders put forward by the moneylending industry. Drawing on field work undertaken within moneylending companies, this paper argues that the relationship between the agents and customers is cultivated to overcome information asymmetries; that is, to produce information about customers' ability to repay. The paper investigates the way in which the initial knowledge about customers is developed during the weekly visits that agents make to the homes of customers. 'Friendly' relationships are cultivated by agents to retain profitable customers who have earned the agent's trust.

Financial exclusion refers to those processes by which individuals and households face difficulties in accessing financial services. Economic geography was an important catalyst in developing research into processes of financial exclusion in the 1990s, focusing initially on the geographies of physical access. This research was motivated by a concern with the equity effects of financial systems, and identifying a general process of branch closure across industrial economies. The paper contains an analysis of the changing geographies of bank and building society closure in Britain between 1995 and 2003 and reveals that closures continue to be disproportionately concentrated within poorer areas, yet the geography of financial infrastructure has been written out of UK financial exclusion policy. The paper concludes by arguing that policy needs to take greater account of the uneven geography of retail financial services production and consumption.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to investigate changes since the early 1980's in offence patterns for residential burglary, theft of and from cars, and vandalism in Stockholm City using methods from spatial statistics. The findings of previous Swedish studies on crime patterns and the insights provided by different theories notably one propounded by Wikström(1991) provide a background for this study and are briefly reviewed. The analytical elements of the paper are in two main parts. The first is a brief description of methodological procedures to obtain robust estimates of small area standardised offence ratios. Attention is paid to both the spatial framework as well as the method of calculating rates. Standardised offence ratios (SORs), are calculated and mapped using GIS and the Getis-Ord statistic is used to identify areas of raised incidence. The variation in a relative risk is modelled as a function of socio-economic variables using the linear regression model whilst recognising the complications raised by the spatial nature of the data. Results suggest that whilst there have been no dramatic changes in the geographies of these offences in Stockholm City during the last decade, there have been some shifts both in terms of geographical patterns and in their association with underlying socio-economic conditions. Terms of use: Documents in

Police forces responsible for large metropolitan areas in England and Wales have claimed that within certain parts of their urban areas there exist high-intensity crime areas (HIAs). These are areas that raise special policing problems because of the particularly violent forms of crime sometimes found within them and because of the unwillingness or inability of the resident population to co-operate fully with the police in part because of fears for their own safety. A sample of metropolitan police forces was asked to identify the location of their HIAs and this paper reports the results of a GIS-based spatial analysis to try and model the location of these areas using census data. Three police force areas were used to develop the model. This was subsequently validated against a further set of HIA data from different police forces. The model suggests that HIAs are characterised by populations that are deprived and live at high density, and by higher levels of population turnover.