Mariana Fix, Professor of Economics at the University of Campinas (Brazil) talked about “Global finance and the right to the city struggle in Brazil”. Mariana is an architect and urbanist by the University of Sao Paulo, with a post-graduate Masters in Sociology and a PhD in Economics. She follows urban social movements in Brazil closely and has studied how global capital and neoliberal ideologies impact city administration and city development in Brazil. Mariana is the author of several books and articles on these subjects.
In this seminar, Mariana discussed the increasing globalization and commodification of the real estate market in Brazil and how it has made an impact on the practices and policies that had been developed following the introduction of the right to the city concept, which is explicitly recognized in the Brazilian constitution and in the laws governing urban development in Brazil.
Mariana Fix Short bio
Professor of Economics, University of Campinas (Unicamp), São Paulo, Brazil
Mariana Fix is a professor at the Institute of Economics at UNICAMP, and author of Partners in Exclusion (Parceiros da exclusão, 2001) and São Paulo Global City (São Paulo, Cidade Global, 2007). She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Campinas (2012), a master’s degree in Sociology from the University of São Paulo (2003), and a professional degree in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo (1996).
She has also published several articles and book chapters on the right to the city, planning and housing policies, slums and tenements in São Paulo, financial investments in land markets, real estate promotion and homebuilders, inner-city gentrification, globalization, and public-private partnerships.
She has just won the 2012 award for best PhD thesis in Economics, granted by the Brazilian institution CAPES (coordinating institute for the development of higher-education professionals).
Mariana is a visiting research scholar at CUNY’s Graduate Center as an Urban Studies Foundation fellow from November 2012 until March 2013. The main goal of the sabbatical is for her to assess the findings of her doctoral dissertation, and to prepare a book manuscript and articles on the subject. In this project, she discusses the growing connections between the financialization of the economy and the promotion of real estate by means of a comparative study between Brazil and the USA. She also addresses the impact of these connections for the built environment and urban life.
Mariana is a member of the Housing and Human Settlements Laboratory at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of São Paulo, and has been working with “Right to the City” organizations for several years.
