Infrastructure's Contradictions

O’Neill, Philip

doi:10.1002/9781119051374.ch7

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…To cite a few examples, there is the case of the formation of a new class of assets from the securitisation of rental properties (Fields 2018); of urban restructuring—including gentrification processes—derived from the strategy of large financial agents that have advanced in the housing market (August and Walks 2018); of the direct insertion in the financial market of organisations dedicated to so‐called social housing (Aalbers et al. 2017); of the transformation of the returns of public infrastructure assets into financial products (Lorrain 2011; O'Neill 2017); and even of the financialisation of public lands (Christophers 2017).…”

Section: Forms Of Space Valorisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value and Valorisation of Space: Notes for a Debate on Critical Geography

Costa

2024

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This article delves into the concept of valorisation of space, a prominent notion in Marxist geographical literature in Brazil. We critically examine this concept—stemming from a theoretical approach introduced in the 1980s during the critical renewal of Brazilian geography—by juxtaposing it with contributions from the Marxist value‐form tradition. This comparison reveals certain operational limits in the concept of valorisation of space. Nevertheless, these limitations can be overcome by more precisely defining it as a subset of practices within the broader context of space production: it can be conceptualised as a specific type of space production, occurring when space itself becomes the subject of valorisation. Furthermore, we explore the potentialities of the concept, showcasing its operationalisation through concrete examples of dynamics within the Brazilian territory.

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Section: Forms Of Space Valorisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Value and Valorisation of Space: Notes for a Debate on Critical Geography

Costa

2024

Antipode

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“…Public infrastructure assets, ranging from toll roads and water utilities to solar farms, have become increasingly financialized as states seek to develop novel financial instruments and governance arrangements to transfer responsibility for financing, ownership and operational management to private investors (Carolini and Cruxên, 2020;Christophers, 2023;Gabor, 2021). The financialization of infrastructure assets entails the transformation of physical assets and the services they provide into a profitable financial asset, by reconfiguring ownership, legal and accounting arrangements to secure revenue streams, control costs and mitigate or delegate financial risks (Ashton et al, 2016;O'Neill, 2013O'Neill, , 2017. Since infrastructure assets provide essential public services and often operate as monopolies, they present investors with an opportunity to extract rents, particularly where they can increase barriers to competition (Christophers, 2020: 282).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The UK Infrastructure Bank and the financialization of public infrastructures amidst nationalist neoliberalism

McArthur

2023

Competition & Change

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Literature on the financialisation of infrastructure gives limited attention to public banks. Since public banks are key state institutions to enable and shape financialisation, more research is needed to show how they mediate financialisation processes amidst evolving social, political and economic pressures. To address the gap in existing literature, this article develops a case study on the UK Infrastructure Bank to examine how the bank enables financialisation whilst maintaining credibility with the United Kingdom's neoliberal-nationalist regime. The findings show that the UKIB is a centralised, technocratic institution which deploys de-risking interventions to attract private investment, including guarantees, equity shares and debt financing. Yet, these interventions enable projects which offer limited public value, such as debt financing to fuel over-investment in fibre broadband markets, or equity investments in infrastructure funds which perpetuate the dominance of short-term, extractive investment logics. To maintain credibility with the neoliberal-nationalist regime, the UKIB's governance strengthens the central government's power over its activities, allowing it to shape the post-Brexit policy agenda and target investment to specific constituencies. While the UKIB boosts the profitability of infrastructure assets for private investors, it also exposes regions to extractive logics that undermine the potential public benefits. The findings show how public banks can be used to coordinate and bolster support for financialisation, yet, the use of de-risking interventions to catalyse financialisation is often at odds with generating long-term public value.

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The Metamorphosis of Infrastructure in Latin American Urbanization: From Insufficiency to Presence as Fictitious Capital

Rufino

2023

The Urban Book Series

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Infrastructure's Contradictions

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

Value and Valorisation of Space: Notes for a Debate on Critical Geography

Value and Valorisation of Space: Notes for a Debate on Critical Geography

The UK Infrastructure Bank and the financialization of public infrastructures amidst nationalist neoliberalism

The Metamorphosis of Infrastructure in Latin American Urbanization: From Insufficiency to Presence as Fictitious Capital

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