Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) and the new relations between State and capital in the Twenty-First century: the new uses of territory in the financialized accumulation regime

• Grant number: 24/00897-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Human Geography
• Principal Investigator: Fabrício Gallo
• Grantee: Maria Carolina Graciano Sugahara
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) have become a prominent topic in international discussions in recent years. As financial assets controlled and directed by national States, SWFs primarily operate through investments abroad, playing strategic roles in global market dynamics characterized by the increasing importance of finance. This implies that SWFs, far from being restricted to neoliberal ideologies-which limit the State's role to providing infrastructure or merely regulatory functions-are depicted as a new state phenomenon, showcasing the State's entry as an institutional investor alongside traditional investment funds financed by private capital. In this context, our objective is to investigate the new relations between State and capital and their territorial counterpart, under the hypothesis that the predominance of a accumulation regime marked by financialization would indicate a redefinition of the State's role in contemporary times, engendering new socio-spatial processes and new uses of territory aligned with financial logic. This hypothesis will be explored through the analysis of the SWF phenomenon and their investments in Brazil, illustrating how the deepening of financialization permeates geographic objects-such as basic infrastructure and essential services related to energy, telecommunications, and sanitation-reflecting the causality between SWFs and the capitalist valorization of space.