While practitioners like us at GenTwo are busy building the assetization revolution, academics are casting a scientific gaze on how it really works. Professor Kean Birch from York University in Canada is one of the leading voices in this emerging field, having co-edited the foundational academic text on the subject.
For more about GenTwo: www.gentwo.com
Kean’s Book on Assetization: Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism
GenTwo’s Book on Assetization: Assetization: How Pioneers Are Banking on a 78 Trillion Dollar Investment Opportunity
Episode with Pier-Luc Nappert: The Assetization of Professional Athletes
About This Year’s AssetRush: AssetRush 2025: Why Infrastructure, Not Assets, May Define the Next Wave of Finance
What makes this conversation fascinating is how his research sheds light on aspects of our industry we might not fully appreciate. How do national accounting standards drive assetization trends? What can we learn from studying everything from biotech IP to student loan securitization? And what does the concept of "data wealth funds" suggest about the future of collective asset governance?
In this wide-ranging discussion, we explore how academic analysis can inform practitioner innovation.
Key Topics Covered:
How intellectual property rights in biotech became Kean's entry point into assetization studies
The difference between academic "deconstruction" and practitioner "construction" approaches
Four categories of academic assetization research: knowledge (IP, patents), nature (oil wells, natural capital), infrastructure (railways, wind farms), and social assets (student loans, impact bonds)
How national accounting standards drive new waves of assetization interest
Data as the emerging frontier: different approaches by US, EU, and China
Why individual data monetization faces the "$40 problem" but collective approaches show promise
The concept of data wealth funds as a governance model
Why assetization studies is gaining intellectual traction with 100+ researchers worldwide
About Our Guest:
Professor Kean Birch is a leading researcher in the emerging field of assetization studies at York University in Canada. He co-edited the foundational academic text "Assetization: Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism" (MIT Press, 2020) and leads reading groups that now include over 100 researchers studying how things become investible assets. His current research focuses on data assetization and alternative asset classes.
Share this post