Role
Andrew Leyshon is a Senior Fellow in the Centre for Economy, Policy and Place, where he draws on his background as an economic geographer to explore the evolving intersections between finance, technology, space, and place. His research critically examines the socio-spatial dynamics of financial innovation, with a particular focus on the platform economy and its implications for both FinTech and the creative industries.
His recent work includes The Rise of the Platform Music Industries (Agenda, 2025), co-authored with Allan Watson, which investigates the transformation of music production and distribution through digital platforms. His forthcoming book, FinTech Capital (Zone Books, 2026), co-authored with Paul Langley, delves into the political and economic dimensions of financial technologies.
Professor Leyshon is currently working on a new monograph that explores the cultural and spatial dimensions of money and finance, continuing his commitment to advancing critical scholarship at the intersection of economic geography and financial innovation.
Career overview
Professor Andrew Leyshon is Emeritus Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Nottingham, where he served from 1999 to 2020, including leadership roles as Head of School and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor. He previously held academic posts at the Universities of Bristol and Hull. Since 2020, he has continued to contribute to research and policy through part-time roles, including Senior Fellow at Nottingham Trent University, Strategic Advisor to Digital Nottingham, and Senior Academic Advisor to the Midlands Engine. His career spans over three decades of scholarship and strategic engagement at the intersection of geography, finance, and technology.
Research areas
Professor Andrew Leyshon’s research explores the economic impacts of technological change, with a particular focus on the rise of the platform economy. His work has examined the growth of FinTech and the digital transformation of the music industry, which has undergone successive waves of platformisation. Alongside this, he has maintained a long-standing interest in uneven development across the UK, investigating how innovation at the margins can foster regional resilience, competitiveness, and adaptability.
External activity
Between 2020 and 2024, Professor Andrew Leyshon served as Academic Partner Coordinator and Senior Academic Advisor to the Midlands Engine Observatory. In this role, he was instrumental in establishing the Midlands Engine Research Partnership, a collaboration among leading universities in the East and West Midlands. He also developed a funding programme that supported research initiatives influencing public policy across key areas including local economic development, public health, and the green transition.
Publications
Langley, Paul and Andrew Leyshon, FinTech Capital, New York: Zone Books (2026). In Press.
Leyshon, Andrew and Allan Watson, The Rise of the Platform Music Industries, Newcastle: Agenda (2025). https://www.agendapub.com/page/detail/the-rise-of-the-platform-music-industries/?k=9781788218191
Leyshon, Andrew. "An Abundance of Caution for a ‘Stagnation Nation’? Financial Services Policy Development in Post-Growth Britain." Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 56, no. 5 (2024): 1337-46. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0308518X241258872
Watson, Allan, Andrew Leyshon, and George Windsor. "Tech Start-up Capitalisation in an Oligopolistic Copyright Industry: The Case of the Contemporary Music Industry." Cultural Trends 33, no. 5 (2023): 641-59. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09548963.2023.2255832
Leyshon, Andrew. "Economic Geography II: The Economic Geographies of the Covid-19 Pandemic." Progress in Human Geography 47, no. 2 (2023): 353-64. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03091325231156926
Langley, Paul, and Andrew Leyshon. "Fintech Platform Regulation: Regulating with/against Platforms in the Uk and China." Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 16, no. 2 (2023): 257-68. https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article/16/2/257/7081115
Watson, Allan, and Andrew Leyshon. "Negotiating Platformisation: Musictech, Intellectual Property Rights and Third Wave Platform Reintermediation in the Music Industry." Journal of Cultural Economy 15, no. 3 (2022): 326-43. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2022.2028653
Langley, Paul, and Andrew Leyshon. "Neo-Colonial Credit: Fintech Platforms in Africa." Journal of Cultural Economy 15, no. 4 (2022): 401-15. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17530350.2022.2028652
Leyshon, Andrew. "Economic Geography I: Uneven Development, ‘Left Behind Places’ and ‘Levelling up’ in a Time of Crisis." Progress in Human Geography 45, no. 6 (2021): 1678-91. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/03091325211011684
Langley, Paul, and Andrew Leyshon. "The Platform Political Economy of Fintech: Reintermediation, Consolidation and Capitalisation." New Political Economy 26, no. 3 (2021/05/04 2021): 376-88. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563467.2020.1766432
Coslor, E., B. Crawford, and A. Leyshon. 2019. Collectors, Investors and Speculators: Gatekeeper use of audience categories in the art market. Organization Studies 41 (7):945–967. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0170840619883371
Langley, P., and A. Leyshon. 2017. Capitalizing on the crowd: The monetary and financial ecologies of crowdfunding. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 49 (5):1019-1039. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308518X16687556
Langley, Paul, and Andrew Leyshon. "Platform Capitalism: The Intermediation and Capitalisation of Digital Economic Circulation." Finance and Society 3, no. 1 (2017): 11-31. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/finance-and-society/article/platform-capitalism-the-intermediation-and-capitalisation-of-digital-economic-circulation/8DA262AC62FF66F97154F6CF5F77870C