Notes on the subsumption of the urban to financial capital:

from the geographies of financialization to an exploratory agenda

Abstract

Certain common elements of urban crises, popularly referred to as ‘social outbreaks’, both in Chile and more recently in Colombia, are useful for critiquing the category of urban financialization. Consequently, the objective of the article is to identify the ‘blind fields’ -theoretical voids and areas of unresolved debate- of the geographical discussions on urban financialization in order to propose a theoretical agenda of an exploratory nature that revolves around the conceptualization of contemporary forms of ‘subsumption’ of the urban to the processes of reproduction of financial capital. From the presentation of various conceptual proposals derived from cases in Switzerland, Spain, Chile or Brazil, an imbalance is identified in the analysis of urban financialization towards the dynamics of production of urban space and more specifically of reducing the latter to production built environment. To transcend this limitation, the use of the category of forms of subsumption of the urban is suggested and four theses are outlined as an exploratory agenda.