The topology of investment banks in Brazil: uiban primacy and formation of the metropolitan corporate complex of São Paulo

Author(s)

Caio Zarino Jorge Alves

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2015-03-11

Examining board members

Fabio Betioli Contel; Maria Mónica Arroyo; Leila Christina Duarte Dias

• Advisor: Fabio Betioli Contel

Abstract

The main objective of this master\'s thesis is to research on the logic behind operation and location of investment banks in Brazil. This logic has more general determinations related to finance-led capitalism and is also a reflection of contemporary urban restructuring, characterized by the coincidence between the processes of territorial dispersion of production units (which works with standardized information) and intense concentration of advanced specialized services (which collect, interpret, and produce complex and unstable information). From these assumptions, we analyze the qualitative change in the financial use of Brazilian territory through the topology of investment banks from 1966 to 2013, highlighting the recent action of two institutions: BR Partners and BES Investimento do Brasil. Financial deregulation, hinged to increased immaterial fluidity of territory, is at the heart of the passage of a more regionalized topology to a more vertical one of investment banks, a topology that increased the primacy of the city of São Paulo in the Brazilian urban network. As a corollary of this process in the sphere of urban structure of São Paulo, an expansion of the Metropolitan Corporate Complex can be observed. It is now established in new centralities, increasingly intensive in technique, science and information in its built environment. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/15977-4 - The Topology of Investment Banks in Brazil: Urban Primacy and Formation of the Metropolitan Corporate Complex of São Paulo
• Grantee: Caio Zarino Jorge Alves
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master