Financialization and land grabbing: the transformation of land into a financial asset in contemporary capitalism

• Grant number: 18/04508-2
• Support type: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): November 02, 2018
• Effective date (End): November 01, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal researcher: Fabio Betioli Contel
• Grantee: Bruno Rezende Spadotto
• Supervisor abroad: Oane Visser
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Research place: Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), Netherlands
• Associated to the scholarship: 16/24186-4 - Land grabbing and territory usage: financial capital and land appropriation in south of Maranhão and Piauí (MATOPIBA), north center of Brazil, BP.DR

Abstract

This request to carry out a Research Internship Abroad is linked to our original Research Project approved by FAPESP (Process No. 2016 / 24186-4) whose primary objective is to understand the different forms of use of the territory carried out by financial capital, which allow this type of speculative capital to control agricultural land. This phenomenon was studied by a wide range of researchers and international institutions that conceptualize the phenomenon using the term "land grabbing" (BORRAS JR et al., 2012; FAIRBAIRN, 2014; VISSER, 2015; 2016). Among the main institutions that have been highlighted in the study of the phenomenon of land grabbing, there is the organization "Land Deal Politics Initiative" (LDPI), and the "Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies" (ICAS), both headquartered at the "International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)" of the Erasmus University Rotterdam in The Hague . In the institution, intellectuals like Oane Visser, Saturnino Borras Jr, among others, develop reference surveys on the term "land grabbing." In this sense, this project has the objective to carry out a theoretical deepening on land grabbing and financialization of the economy, thus, understanding the transformation of agricultural land into a financial asset (VISSER, 2016). We know that the expansion of the technical-scientific-informational environment (SANTOS, 2009) that has been happening since the end of the Second World War - also a period of the deepening of the globalization of capital (CHESNAIS, 1996) - inserts new financial practices and relations in economic activities that were impossible before. Thus, among the specific objectives of this project, is the learning about the research methodology that investigates the control of agricultural land by financial capital. This task will be accomplished through bibliographical research, interviews with researchers from the Institute (professors, or other postgraduate students), participation in research seminars and accomplishment of post-graduation courses during one academic year (second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019) under the supervision of Professor Oane Visser.