Territory, Financial Capital and Agriculture: foreign investments in Brazilian agribusiness

• Grant number: 15/00549-8
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Effective date (Start): December 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Samuel Frederico
• Grantee: Samuel Frederico
• Host: Bezunesh Tamru
• Home Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Local de pesquisa : Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociales et Recomposition des Espaces (LADYSS), France

Abstract

In times of strong financial expansion of the historical geography of capitalism, as in the current period of globalization, surplus capital constantly seeking new ways to accumulation like dispossession of natural resources sucha as land and water. In this context, the main objective of this research is to analyze the changes in the use of Brazilian territory due to the relationship between financial investors with national companies and large agricultural producers in the areas of expansion of modern agricultural frontier. We try to understand as the process of globalization and financialization of capital introduces a new rate of expansion and new ways of organization of modern agricultural production through the analysis the strategies of business groups controlled by financial investors. During the research stage aimed to deepen the theoretical discussion on three main aspects: the notion of land grabbing; globalization and financialization of the economy and its relationship with agribusiness; how the financial capital can impose its logic of profitability to companies and productive activities.