Public power, financial capital and uses of territory: the participation of institutional investors and investment funds in the highway concessions in São Paulo

• Grant number: 21/08480-8
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2023
• End date: January 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Fabrício Gallo
• Grantee: Fabrício Gallo
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Fábio Tozi ; Luís Henrique Leandro Ribeiro ; Márcio Antonio Cataia
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/07742-7 - State, financial capital and emergence of new actors in the use of territory: reflections on the Maputo Circular Road - Mozambique., BP.PD; 23/04932-7 - New uses of territory, normative structure and business organization of institutional investors in highway concessions in the state of São Paulo., BP.TT

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to reflect on the role of the Brazilian state as a significant agent in the current use of territory process. A change in the role of the state, which now acts as a regulator and no longer as a provider of some services on account of privatizations and concessions of infrastructure and public services, has been observed. This is because the growing interest of institutional investors in the infrastructure sector and the introduction of new agents (investment funds) over the road concession sector to the detriment of the large national construction firms.The actions of institutional investors, mainly investment and pension funds, which are key players in our historical period, have expanded the frontiers of capital, subjecting the most diverse economic activities to the logic of financial gains. In this context, we will analyze here what we consider to be a manifestation of this process. We use the concept of financialization and uses of territory as the guiding threads of the analysis, showing how, through the case study, this process causes reorganizations in the territorial dynamics. (AU)