Financial models for planning in times of austerity
The financialization of the most diverse sectors of modern life is an emerging trend in recent years. In the context of territorial and urban planning, this situation is no different. Whether in the implementation of large urban projects, in the use of funds and securities to capitalize undertakings, in the creation of great urban projects, in new urban intervention projects, in the pursuit of public securitization companies, in land concessions for social housing, or even in the privatization of infrastructure or utility systems, seem ubiquitous as initiatives to reshape and restructure 21st century urban space through financial instruments. There is a confluence of projects pointing to the need for collaborative solutions. However, in the face of a call for “austerity”, such efforts assume a financialized language of urban space remodeling, limiting the scope of urban planners actions for the sake of profit and speculation. This study, as an exercise in systematizing, collecting, and investigating experiences of financialization, seeks in order to identify its origins, understand its dynamics and trends.