This is a joint seminar with Migration Mobilities Bristol (MMB)

Casino Asia: How do casinos transform social imaginations?

To register for a free in-person ticket, please sign up on Eventbrite.
To register for a free online ticket, please sign up on Zoom.

Abstract: The rapid proliferation of casino-resorts in Asia and their unique integration into the region’s landscape has reshaped its social and economic fabric in the past decade. “Asia” – as a region and a buzzword – has become both a hub for speculative development and a playground for financial adventurism, fostering a casino-integrated-resort development model that assembles capital, skills, bodies, and desires within spatial enclaves of capitalism. Amidst prevailing economic uncertainties, post-pandemic recovery complexities, and shifting geopolitical dynamics, casino leisure and gaming as a booming industry raises questions about the embedded hopes and desires it fuels, who benefits from its speculative drive, and how it transforms social imaginations across uneven geographies. Furthermore, the infrastructuralisation of global gambling through casino-making adds greater complexities to this dynamic, highlighting the significance of the growth of a casino economy in Asia and their broader social and political impact.

Speaker: Juan’s research explores borders and transnational migration in various forms, with particular interests on Asian borderlands, migrant Im/mobilities & transnationalism, cross-border cultural politics & China.

Lunch will be provided 

This event will held as an in-person event and online.  

Juan Zhang, University of Bristol